ABSTRACT
Russian tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) remain a contentious issue in US—Russian relations, in NATO—Russian relations, and in transatlantic and intra-European relations. This discord stems primarily from the significant imbalance in the number of weapons possessed by Russia and the United States; estimates suggest that there are 2,000 Russian TNWs while the United States has only 500–600. The imbalance in Europe is probably even more significant: although the precise numbers are unknown, it is commonly assumed that most of Russia's stockpile of TNWs is deployed in the European part of the country, while the United States only has approximately 180 of these weapons in Europe, and the United Kingdom and France no longer have any of this category of nuclear weapons.
