ABSTRACT
Despite a high-profile commitment to nuclear disarmament marked by President Obama's April 2009 speech in Prague, in which he endorsed a world without nuclear weapons, his administration has elected to move slowly on the issue of US tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) deployed in Europe. This choice reflects the administration's drive to avoid conflicts with NATO allies and with Congressional Republicans. Some NATO members want the weapons to be removed, while others continue to see them as important elements in alliance cohesion, and the administration has opted for a policy that seeks to conceal these divisions. Likewise, to quickly negotiate and win Senate approval of the New START treaty, the administration chose to leave the issue out of the accord while also placating Republican criticisms that the treaty failed to address the disparity between US and Russian TNWs by committing to future negotiations with Russia.
