US Nuclear Weapons Policy After the Cold War by Nick Ritchie

Author:Nick Ritchie [Ritchie, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, Political Science, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9781134036431
Google: rXN8AgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008-08-08T01:15:25+00:00

Arms control and non-proliferation are anachronistic

This idea set interprets concepts of arms control and non-proliferation quite differently. It embraces the utility of military force in dealing with post-Cold War nuclear threats rather than reinvigorating multilateral arms control.100 The logic of this idea set argues that arms control and the non-proliferation regime cannot deal with the difficult cases of nuclear proliferation and should not constrain America in its attempts to address these threats for the good of the international community.101 ‘Rogue’ states should be isolated, challenged and ultimately have their regimes removed if they do not comply with American demands to abandon their WMD programmes.

Bilateral nuclear arms control is an astrategic and increasingly anachronistic tool designed only to manage the end of the Cold War nuclear arms race with little wider relevance.102 The START process is defunct, the ABM treaty is an irrelevant hindrance and missile defences are prioritised over efforts to secure further treaty-based nuclear force reductions with Russia. These Cold War treaties and processes lock America into the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. They represent an illusory path to security that must be abandoned by de-coupling American and Russian nuclear forces.103

The NPT is interpreted solely as a tool for combating nuclear proliferation, a confidence building measure rather than a source of binding commitments, and often regarded as having little value and relevance to the second nuclear age. The abolition of nuclear weapons envisaged by the treaty will never occur.104 Clinton’s ‘philosophy of cooperative security’ and ‘overdependence on arms control’ is criticised for undermining American national security and nuclear deterrent threats.105 Harold Brown and John Deutch, former Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense respectively, responded to the January 2007 Nunn, Perry, Kissinger and Schultz Wall Street Journal editorial with a commentary entitled ‘The Nuclear Disarmament Fantasy’ which claimed that ‘hope is not a policy, and, at present, there is no realistic path to world free of nuclear weapons’.106 Advocates of this idea set instead support ‘coalitions of the willing’ and US-led initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative to combat WMD proliferation and challenge ‘rogue’ states. They also argue in favour of increased cooperation with Russia and China to deal with ‘rogue’ states.107

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