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Strategy and Nuclear Weapons

National National SecurityGoals Strategy

Global Environment

But: technology influences strategy

Developments and Debates

• Early 20th century: Airpower• Mid to late 20th century: nuclear weapons• 21st century: cyberweapons

August 6, 1945 Hiroshima

August 9, 1945 Nagasaki

“The Absolute Weapon”

Bernard Brodie, The Absolute Weapon, 1946

First Nuclear Age, 1945-90s

1. Bipolarity– balance

2. Deterrence– vulnerability

3. Arms Control– Managing rivalry

4. Rationality

Second Nuclear Age, 1990s to present

1. Multipolarity– asymmetry

2. Deterrence– missile defense

3. Arms Control– coercion

4. Rationality

First Nuclear Age 1945-90s

1. Bipolarity– balance

2. Deterrence– vulnerability

3. Arms Control– Managing rivalry

4. Rationality

1. Bipolarity• An Arms Race– Spiral theory

• US and USSR rough equality• Balance of power• Triad– ICBMs– SLBMs– Bombers

ICBMIntercontinental Ballistic Missile

SLBM – Submarine-launched Ballistic Missile

Launch Tube Hatches on USS Alabama

Strategic Bombers

Two Arms Races by 1960s

1. Offense-offense2. Offense-defense

Early ABM Systems

• Johnson Administration: “Sentinel”

2. Deterrence

Strategies of Deterrence1.Warfighting– JFK: Flexible Response– Nixon: Limited Nuclear Options: NSDM-242– Carter: Countervailing Strategy: PD-59– Reagan: Prevailing Strategy: NSDD-13

MIRVsMultiple Independently Targeted Reentry

Vehicles

Strategies of Deterrence2. Assured DestructionDeterrence = Second Strike capability• “Balance of Terror” – Albert Wohlstetter, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 2

(January 1959): 211-234

Soviet First Strike: Successful: USSR “wins”

US Second strike

US USSR

US Second Strike CapabilitySoviet First StrikeUS Second strikeScenario: Everyone Dies

US USSR

US and Soviet Nuclear Arsenals

ICBM SLBM Bombers launchers/warheads launchers/warheads launchers/warheads

US Strategic Nuclear Forces

1950 0 0 0 0 462 330

1960 12 12 32 32 1515 3083

1970 1054 1244 656 1552 390 3339

1980 1054 2144 512 5056 376 3568

1990 1000 2440 608 5312 267 4648

2000 550 2000 432 3456 73 1376

2013 450 500 288 1152 60 300

US and Soviet Nuclear Arsenals

ICBM SLBM Bombers launchers/warheads launchers/warheads launchers/warheads

USSR/Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces

1956 0 0 0 0 40 120

1960 2 2 30 30 121 354

1970 1472 1472 317 287 157 568

1980 1338 5362 990 1558 157 568

1990 1297 6857 908 2900 127 1402

2000 756 3540 348 1576 112 790

2013 326 1050 160 624 72 810

Sources:•Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Nuclear Notebook•Natural Resources defense Council Archive of Nuclear Data

3. Arms Control

• Management of the arms race• Cut costs• Increase predictability• Increase transparency• “Essential equivalence”

Strategic Nuclear Weapons Treaties

Cold War Era• SALT I– Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms 1972– ABM Treaty 1972

• SALT II Agreement 1979

Strategic Nuclear Weapons Treaties

End of the Cold War• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) I

1991• START II 1993

Strategic Nuclear Weapons Treaties

Post-Cold War Era• Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT)

2002• New START Treaty 2010

Critics of Arms Control

• Soviet ICBM Superiority?• “Window of Vulnerability”

US launchers warheads Soviet launchers warheads

Titan 54 54 SS-17 108 432

Minuteman II 450 450 SS-18 308 3,080

Minuteman III 550 1,650 SS-19 330 1,980

Total 1,054 2,154 Total 746 5,492

Solutions to Window of VulnerabilityNixon to Reagan1. Mobile Missiles– MX Multiple Protective Shelters system

Solutions to Window of VulnerabilityReagan to present2. Missile DefenseReagan’s SDI speech, March 23, 1983

4. Rationality

• The logic of parity/equality• The logic of deterrence• The logic of management of the arms race• STRATEGIC STABILITY

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