Framing the Next Nuclear Posture Review: A State-Centric, Strategic Approach

The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released by the Department of Defense (DoD) in \n2010, announced an unprecedented shift in the U.S. nuclear policy away from state-based threats \nto nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism concerns. While these issues remain important, the \nevolving global strategic environment dictates that the next NPR return to a state-centric, strategic \nfocus emphasizing four states: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. The only strategic peer to the \nUnited States, Russia, is actively modernizing all aspects of its nuclear arsenal and has placed nonstrategic \nnuclear weapons (NSNWs) at the center of its national security.1 China has overhauled \nthe structure of its nuclear weapons program and nuclear and missile developments in North Korea \nare ongoing. Not long ago Iran reached the cusp of nuclear capability before the implementation \nof the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The United States must now ensure that this \nagreement is implemented effectively. All of these developments make it impossible to ignore the \nimportance of nuclear weapons in the U.S. global strategic posture today.