Global Beat Syndicate: Pentagon Touts Nuclear Cuts While Escalating Risks

By Mark Bromley

LONDON -- The US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the first since 1994, was released this week, promising deep reductions in the US nuclear arsenal. But it also threatens to expand the role for nuclear weapons in U.S. strategic planning, undermining cooperation with Russia on nuclear disarmament and leaving Washington struggling to explain the true nature of the promised ãcutsä.

The review also points to a possible resumption of nuclear testing by the United States. As the world is again faced with the specter of nuclear conflict, Washington has opted for a posture that places nuclear weapons at the heart of U.S. military planning and gravely undermines global arms control and disarmament efforts.

The review promises deep reductions in U.S. nuclear forces, restating President Bushâs recent promise to cut the arsenal to around 2,000 warheads within ten years. But the NPR also insists that any cuts made in the US nuclear arsenal must be reversible. Thus, the nuclear weapons cut from the operational deployment stockpile are to be placed into storage rather than destroyed.

While deactivating U.S. nuclear weapons is a welcome step, the ãhedgeä maintained by the Bush administration would allow the United States to re-deploy the nuclear weapons in the future. Giving details of the review on Wednesday, Assistant Defense Secretary of Defense J.D. Crouch was explicit that at all stages of the proposed reductions, the United States would retain the option to slow, stop or reverse the process.

If Washington insists on retaining the option to reverse any reductions it makes to its nuclear arsenal, Moscow will have little incentive to match the cuts. The good relations that currently exist between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin offers Russia little guarantee in the absence of a mutually verified agreement. As Moscow has emphasized repeatedly, presidents come and go, but treaties last. If Russia fails to match U.S. cuts, the disarmament process will be crippled.

The NPR also hints at a possible American resumption of nuclear testing. The review reiterates the Bush administrationâs vehement opposition to ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), described by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999 as vital to ãthe safety of the world we bequeath to our childrenä. In addition, the review recommends that the United States reduce the time necessary to prepare its nuclear test sites. It currently takes two years to ready a US site for nuclear testing.

By threatening the CTBT and increasing the readiness of its test sites, the Bush administration is posing a grave threat to the current global moratorium on nuclear testing. If the United States resumes testing, many of the countries threatening to go nuclear will have little to stop them developing their own weapon systems. Such a development would create threats that vastly outweigh those facing the West in its ongoing war on terrorism.

Crouch also revealed that the United States is considering modifying existing nuclear weapons to attack hardened and deeply buried bunkers. Influential voices within the administration believe that conventional weapons are ill-equipped to tackle these threats. The development of low-yield Îmini-nukesâ for use in non-strategic missions, such as destroying hardened or deeply buried targets, would dramatically lower the threshold for nuclear use. Even a small warhead would be hugely destructive and create dangerous levels of radiation. In addition, the post-Hiroshima taboo on nuclear use would be destroyed, with disastrous implications for international security.

By insisting on flexibility in its nuclear cuts, threatening a reduction in nuclear testing and leaving the door open for the development of Îmini-nukes,â the new Nuclear Posture Review threatens to increase security risks while failing to tackle the nuclear threat. With heightened tensions on the Indian subcontinent, the United States needs to show global leadership in reducing the dangerous nuclear remnants of the Cold War. Instead, Washington seems intent on placing nuclear weapons at the very heart of its strategic planning for years to come.

Building up a fortress of offensive and defensive systems will only serve to increase international tension and does little to tackle the security threats faced globally.

Mark Bromley is an analyst with the British American Security Information Council in London.
Copyright 2002, Global Beat Syndicate, 418 Lafayette Street, Suite 554, New York, NY 10003 http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate.