National security

Obama’s Nuclear Farewell

...Mr. Obama may declare a policy of nuclear “no first use” (NFU), meaning the U.S. would commit never to use nuclear weapons unless an adversary does so first. This would abandon seven decades of strategic ambiguity concerning when the U.S. might use nukes—and in the process undermine U.S. deterrence against the likes of North Korea.

“The fatal flaw of the warm and progressive-sounding NFU proposal is that it tells would-be aggressors that they do not have to fear U.S. nuclear retaliation even if they attack us or our allies with advanced conventional, chemical, and/or biological weapons,” warns former Pentagon official Keith Payne. Leaders from Pyongyang to Tehran, Moscow and Beijing would feel “greater license” to act as aggressively as possible short of nuclear war.