FAS - New Report on Nuclear Policy

FROM THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS:

New Report Recommends Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Nuclear Disarmament –
FAS and NRDC Chart Minimal Deterrent Nuclear Mission

In Prague, President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons. Today, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved.

The study From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence: A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons recommends abandoning the decades-old “counterforce” doctrine and replacing it with a new and much less ambitious targeting policy the authors call Minimal Deterrence.
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/doctrine/targeting.pdf?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions



Global Security Newswire reported last week that Department of Defense officials have concluded that significant reductions to the nuclear arsenal cannot be made unless President Barak Obama scales back the nation’s strategic war plan. The FAS/NRDC report presents a plan for how to do that.

The last time outdated nuclear guidance stood in the way of nuclear cuts was in 1997, when then President Clinton had to change President Reagan’s 17-year old guidance to enable U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to go to the START-III force level that the Bush administration subsequently adopted as the Moscow Treaty force level. The series of STRATCOM force structure studies (http://www.nukestrat.com/us/stratcom/force.htm?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions) examining lower force levels is described in The Matrix of Deterrence.(http://www.nukestrat.com/pubs/matrix.pdf?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions)

Resources: Full Report http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/doctrine/targeting.pdf?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions

US Nuclear Forces 2009 http://thebulletin.metapress.com/content/f64x2k3716wq9613/fulltext.pdf?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions

United States Reaches Moscow Treaty Warhead Limit Early
to get the full report http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2009/02/sort.php?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=kearneyjmm%40aol.com&utm_campaign=nuclear+missions