The Role of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century U. S. Security Strategy
Abstract
The present paper aims to compare the approaches of the Bush and Obama administrations towards the role of nuclear weapons in the United States security strategy. The author focuses on the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) reports from 2001 and 2010, employing a detailed comparative analysis of their respective content as well as their implications. The analysis concentrates on broader conceptual issues as well as on the very concrete steps related to specific elements of the United States strategic arsenal. The author argues that the current political discourse, which attributes a nearly revolutionary character to the approach of the Obama administration to the United States nuclear policy, does not fully match the actual dimension of the change between the NPR of 2001 and that of 2010. In fact, the evolution of the United States nuclear strategy maintains its own dynamics in many aspects.
Keywords
Nuclear Posture Review, United States, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, strategy, nuclear weapons, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, disarmament, deterrence
Author Biography
Michal Smetana
Born in 1983, he completed a master's degree in security studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, where he is currently pursuing a doctoral program in international relations and lectures in courses such as Introduction to Strategic Studies, Theory and Practice of Arms Control and Disarmament, and Theory and Practice of Security. His research focuses primarily on nuclear weapons, deterrence, missile defense, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other topics related to strategic studies.