Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Obstacles and Opportunities. . - Net Assessment - book review

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2002 by Youssef H. Aboul-Enein

Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Obstacles and Opportunities edited by Jeffrey A. Larsen and Kurt J. Klingenberger. USAF Institute for National Security Studies (http://www.usafa.af.mil/inss), US Air Force Academy, 2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 5L27, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80840, 2001, 356 pages.

In November 2000, the National Security Policy Division of Headquarters US Air Force sponsored a conference in Warrenton, Virginia, to consider issues concerning nonstrategic nuclear weapons (NSNW), also known as theater or tactical nuclear weapons. The conference drew experts from the military, academia, and think tanks such as RAND. Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons distills the fruits of their deliberations into 14 essays that address problems, objectives, and solutions related to NSNWs.

For example, Lewis Dunn focuses on how the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START) have not kept pace with Russia's financial ability to destroy over 10,000 NSNW warheads. No longer equal to the United States in superpower status, Russia is beginning to look into how NSNWs can address deficiencies in its conventional forces, which are eroding from a lack of financial support. Furthermore, the US antiballistic-missile program tends to make Moscow less inclined to destroy NSNW stockpiles.

Andrea Gabbitas points out the crucial problem of NSNWs that are not equipped with permissive action links--locks that safeguard these weapons from being deployed by unauthorized persons. The absence of these links makes it easier for rogue states that are hungry to join the nuclear cartel to detonate or reverse-engineer these weapons. Gabbitas also highlights the difficulty of defining NSNWs. Mounting these tactical weapons on submarines or long-range bombers gives them strategic offensive capability. Simply defining NSNWs as nuclear weapons capable of striking the United States from Russia is too limiting; Turkey and Israel, for instance, argue that Syrian and Iraqi Scuds fitted with nuclear war-heads are strategic weapons. Furthermore, Russia maintains that tactical warheads in Europe are strategic weapons capable of striking deep inside its territory. Gabbitas postulates that any meaningful discussion of the subject requires a definition of NSNWs that includes agreement on range, yield, target, national ownership, delivery mechanism, and capability.

Stanley Sloan looks at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) nuclear strategy in the current environment. France has proposed that its nuclear arsenal form the basis of a European Union (EU) defense policy. Another factor involves convincing Moscow that NATO expansion does not mean an extension of nuclear risks to Russia. Additionally, even though Great Britain's and France's tactical nuclear warheads could relieve the United States of much of the burden of responsibility for continental defense, Germany and other nations in NATO are uncomfortable entrusting nuclear policy to the British and French. In a related article, David Yost notes that Russia would be more amicable to destroying its NSNWs if the United States withdrew its remaining tactical weapons from Europe. He also takes a detailed look at the complexity of Russian arms control and the effect of Washington's agreements with Moscow on EU security.

Finally, James Smith, director of the USAF Institute for National Security Studies, examines how NSNWs will affect the US Air Force as the lead agent on this issue. Indeed, one of the factors contributing to the appointment of Gen Richard Myers, USAF, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was his familiarity with space, missile, and nuclear technologies.

In sum, Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons highlights the delicate issues President Bush faces in an area that has not received much attention due to the asymmetric war on terrorism in which we are currently engaged. I especially recommend this book to all readers involved in missile and space systems as well as to those who have concerns about nuclear proliferation.