Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2012

Reducing and Regulating Tactical (Nonstrategic) Nuclear Weapons in Europe

Miles A. Pomper, William Potter, Nikolai Sokov

December 2009

James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Abstract

The advent of the Obama administration and the president's commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons have encouraged some U.S. allies in Europe to suggest that it is time to remove U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons based on their territory. New military doctrines being drafted in Moscow and Washington may alter the roles that these weapons play in each country's nuclear strategy. The revitalized U.S.-Russian dialogue on reducing strategic arsenals has also led to calls for tackling the two countries' nonstrategic nuclear weapons arsenals.