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The Future of the U.S.-Soviet Nuclear Relationship (1991) / Chapter Skim
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II. New Objectives for Nuclear Weapons Policy
Pages 14-18

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From page 14...
... This is particularly true when the conflicts have a potential nuclear dimension. We believe that the creation and maintenance of effective cooperative security institutions and arrangements, particularly in the nuclear area, should replace containment of the Soviet Union as the United States' major security goal.
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From page 15...
... It also means preventing the occurrence of situations so dangerous that they might lead to the use of nuclear weapons against the United States. In the past, these postulated situations included some massive nonnuclear attacks, and the United States sought to extend nuclear deterrence to prevent them.
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From page 16...
... We also note that retaining nuclear weapons in excess of what is needed to deter the Soviet Union is a liability for other reasons. At a time when both the defense and the overall federal budgets face severe constraints, maintaining excessive numbers of nuclear weapons would come at the expense of improvements in their quality, safety, and survivability.
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From page 17...
... With these caveats, we conclude that both the Soviet Union and the United States can be more secure with fewer, more survivable, nuclear systems. At the same time, smaller deployments of nuclear weapons must remain secure from attack, as must the warning, communication, and command and control systems that are needed to operate them.
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From page 18...
... This is not the place to discuss critically the long-range technical prospects for converting the current offense dominance to a defense-dominated world or to examine whether a transition to such a world could be executed stably. The advent of nuclear weapons has strongly tilted the traditional offense-defense competition in favor of the offense since each delivered nuclear weapon possesses such great explosive power.
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Key Terms

  • nuclear attack
  • nuclear war
  • massive nonnuclear
  • explosive power
  • weapons policy

  • cooperative security
  • extend nuclear
  • continuously alert
  • leave ample
  • federal budgets

  • permitted nations
  • environmental burdens
  • excessive nuclear
  • nonnuclear attacks
  • military fuel

  • judging future
  • develop survivable
  • remain secure
  • attack depends
  • states sought

  • overall federal
  • nuclear forces
  • fuel cycle
  • maintaining excessive
  • policy governing

  • security involving
  • basic tension
  • survivable forces
  • sharp delineation
  • strongly tilted


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