Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 08/2014

Future Options for NATO Nuclear Policy

Jeffrey A. Larsen

August 2011

Atlantic Council

Abstract

The United States has maintained forward-deployed nuclear weapons in Europe for more than six decades. That may soon come to an end, argue Dr. Jeffrey A. Larsen, a retired Air Force command pilot and expert on arms control, in his Atlantic Council issue brief "Future Options for NATO Nuclear Policy.”

Unless current trends are altered, US nuclear weapons may not have many years left before they are removed from NATO Europe through mechanisms driven by everything except a conscious Alliance decision. Larsen explores eleven alternatives NATO should consider for its nuclear future.