Prevention, Pre-Emption and the Nuclear Option: From Bush to Obama by Aiden Warren

Author:Aiden Warren [Warren, Aiden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Public Policy, Nuclear Warfare, Presidents & Heads of State, Military, Biography & Autobiography, Peace, Political Science, Military Policy, History, Security (National & International), Terrorism, General
ISBN: 9781136624353
Google: _RKpAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17548714
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction 2002

It was only six weeks later on 10 December 2002 that the Bush Administration released the emphatically titled “National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction,” which specifically advocated the use of nuclear weapons on states it deemed to be developing WMD. However, what made this expansion of the Bush Doctrine controversial was the classified version of the “National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction”—National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 17—which stated that “the United States will make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force—including potentially nuclear weapons—to the use of [weapons of mass destruction] against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies.” The wording in NSPD 17 used the rhetoric of “potentially nuclear weapons,” whereas the declassified version replaced this with the very ambiguous “all of our options;”43 no doubt an attempt by the Administration to soften and dilute potential international criticism.

The specific detail pertaining to nuclear weapons reassertion that the NSS perhaps lacked was clearly supplemented in the concise NSCWMD, and in particular, the classified NSPD 17. The fact that the NSCWMD was introduced with a direct quote from the NSS illustrated the linkage, continuum and more importantly, guiding pillar that the NSS provided from here on in nuclear instrument formation. As the NSCWMD quoted from the NSS:

The gravest danger our Nation faces lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to Succeed…. History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act. In the new world we have entered, the only path to peace and security is the path of action.44

The NSCWMD even specified this link further in its earlier stages by emphasizing how the countering of WMD, including the use and further proliferation, was “an integral component of the National Security Strategy of the United States of America.”45 It then argued that the United States’ strategy for homeland security, and its new concept of deterrence, including the ability to combat WMD, represented a fundamental change from the past and that the United States must take advantage of “today’s opportunities”—including the utilization and application of new technologies, the increased focus on intelligence collection and analysis, the strengthening of alliance relationships, and the establishment of “new partnerships with former adversaries.”46

The focus on Weapons of Mass Destruction was further expanded on in the NSCWMD by highlighting how such weapons could enable adversaries to inflict massive harm on the United States, its military forces at home and abroad, and “our friends and allies.” That is, some states, including several that have supported and have continued to endorse terrorism, already possessed WMD and were pursuing even greater capabilities, as vehicles of coercion and intimidation. For “them,” the NSCWMD emphasized, such weapons were not of the last resort but a militarily useful

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