Nuclear security

Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review: Back to Armageddon

It is no secret that when it comes to shaping government policy, Donald Trump has been driven by compulsion to undo the enlightened measures of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Whether in the field of immigration, labor rights, race relations, environmental protection, or climate change, Trump has used every instrument at his command—every senior appointment, regulatory measure, or executive order—to undermine the gains made in those areas during the Obama era. But no rollback of that legacy is likely to prove as consequential or dangerous as his plan to enlarge America’s nuclear arsenal and expand the uses to which it can be put. If all of Trump’s policies are enacted, we will soon find ourselves in a world as terrifying as that of the darkest days of the Cold War.

To fully grasp the severity of Trump’s proposals, we need to recall President Obama’s own stance on nuclear-weapons use. In his first major address on this issue, delivered in Prague on April 5, 2009, Obama laid out a clear and hopeful vision. “Today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” he declared. While recognizing that such a world could not be easily or quickly achieved, he promised to begin that process with a pledge to “reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy.”