Nuclear security

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy: Considering "No First Use"

Recent press reports indicate that the Obama Administration might adopt a declaratory policy stating that the United States will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in conflict. These reports have reignited debate about the benefits and risks of this policy, known as a "no first use" pledge. U.S. officials have repeatedly stated that the United States could, under certain circumstances, use nuclear weapons against a state, even if the latter has not already done so. The absence of a "no first use" pledge dates back to the Cold War when the U.S. sought to deter a Soviet attack on the United States and its allies in Europe. The United States has modified its policy to reduce the apparent role of nuclear weapons, but has still not declared that it would not use them first.

Current Nuclear Declaratory Policy

 The United States has pledged to refrain from using nuclear weapons against most non-nuclear weapon states, but has neither ruled out their first use in all cases nor specified the circumstances under which it would use them. This approach, known as "calculated ambiguity," addressed U.S. concerns during the Cold War, when the United States and NATO faced numerically superior Soviet and Warsaw Pact conventional forces in Europe. At the time, the United States not only developed plans to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield to disrupt or defeat attacking tanks and troops, but it also hoped that the risk of a nuclear response would deter the Soviet Union from initiating a conventional attack.