Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 12/2010

Hello Missile Defence – Goodbye Nuclear Sharing?

Trine Flockhart

November 2010

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

NATO will agree on its long awaited strategic concept on the 19-20 November. Trine Flockhart argues in a new DIIS Policy Brief that although the role of nuclear weapons is likely to remain largely unchanged, fundamental change is nevertheless to be expected in NATO following the adoption of the new strategic concept. It seems likely that NATO increasingly will rely on missile defence as a shared political project, whilst NATO’s aging tactical nuclear weapons probably will be withdrawn gradually in the next five to ten years.