Am
new nuclear world?: President Obama and Russian
President
Medvedev
sign a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Prague.
Die Welt, Germany
Obama's Nuclear Policy
is a 'Mini Revolution'
"However, there's a weak side
to this nuclear doctrine: The price for an attack with conventional, biological
or chemical weapons on America's allies, its vital interests and those of the
West will be far less severe."
A U.S. Minuteman Missile engine: The new treaty signed by the United States and Russia in Prague today - if ratified by the nations' respective lawmakers - will result in the elimination of many of these weapons.
President Barack Obama has
announced a new strategy for the use of nuclear weapons. He is clearly limiting
the use of atomic bombs. Obama makes clear that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is for
deterrence and nothing else. However, there is also a softer side to the
doctrine.
Barack Obama's new nuclear
policy is a mini revolution. Up to now, the United States was consciously ambivalent
when asked what kind of attack on America or its allies would draw nuclear
retaliation, whereas now Obama has laid out fairly strict guidelines.
The U.S. will only consider the
use of nuclear weapons if the opponent has nuclear weapons or if it deliberately
violates the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty - a reference to North Korea and Iran. Obama makes
it clear that in principle, the U.S. nuclear arsenal serves no other purpose
but to act as a deterrent.
On one hand, it is welcomed
that the U.S. president has restricted the use of nuclear weapons in all but
the most extreme circumstances. They are no longer to be used as a deterrent to
chemical or biological attack.
However, there's a weak side
to this nuclear doctrine: The price for an attack with conventional, biological
or chemical weapons on America's allies, its vital interests and those of the
West will be far less severe. So wars below the nuclear threshold will be much
easier to wage, because aggressive countries will no longer have to fear the
ultimate American retaliation.
Admittedly, the president is
focused on replacing the nuclear deterrence with devastating conventional
means. The problem is that most of those weapons don’t yet exist. Therefore, this
new doctrine will make nervous all of those allies in problem regions, who have
hitherto relied on the American nuclear umbrella.
