President Obama Decides to Agree to Limit When US Would Use Nuclear Arms - Also: No New Nukes

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WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons.

Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary.

Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors (see PNAC) and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China.

It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

Those threats, Mr. Obama argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options,” a combination of old and new conventional weapons. “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,” he said in the interview in the Oval Office.

White House officials said the new strategy would include the option of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against a biological attack, if the development of such weapons reached a level that made the United States vulnerable to a devastating strike.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/06arms.html?src=mv&pagewanted=print


Obama will unveil his strategy today ahead of a major nuclear conference in Washington next week and two days before Russia and the US sign a treaty promising to slash their stockpiles of long-range nuclear warheads by a third.

In an interview with the New York Times, Obama said he would make exceptions for "outliers like Iran and North Korea,'' but that his new strategy was aimed at eliminating Cold War ambiguities about when such weapons could be used.

"We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons... (to) make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances,'' he said.

read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/obama-to-limit-use-of-nuclear-weapons/story-e6frg6so-1225850415027


Excerpts from President Obama’s New Nuclear Strategy

Published: April 5, 2010

On the Use of Nuclear Weapons:

"The United States will continue to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in deterring non-nuclear attacks. To that end, the United States is now prepared to strengthen its long-standing 'negative security assurance' by declaring that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that are party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations. This revised assurance is intended to underscore the security benefits of adhering to and fully complying with the NPT and persuade non-nuclear weapons states party to the Treaty to work with the United States and other interested parties to adopt effective measures to strengthen the non-proliferation regime.

"In making this strengthened assurance, the United States affirms that any state eligible for the assurance that uses chemical or biological weapons against the United States or its allies and partners would face the prospect of a devastating conventional military response - and that any individuals responsible for the attack, whether national leaders or military commanders, would be held fully accountable.

"Given the catastrophic potential of biological weapons and the rapid pace of bio-technology development, the United States reserves the right to make any adjustment in the assurance that may be warranted by the evolution and proliferation of the biological weapons threat and US capacities to counter that threat."


On the Development of New Nuclear Weapons:

"The United States will not develop new nuclear warheads. Life Extension Programs will use only nuclear components based on previously tested designs, and will not support new military missions or provide for new military capabilities."

read: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/06arms-side.html?pagewanted=print

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