ABSTRACT
The 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released on 2 February, contains troubling recommendations to broaden the role of nuclear weapons in American strategy, but omits more radical options that some observers had anticipated. The NPR’s most eye-catching feature is the call for the United States to develop new nuclear capabilities to deter limited nuclear use by others. US officials fear that they could be left with two bad options: either backing down and giving Russia the huge victory of a politically broken NATO, or escalating to mutually catastrophic strategic nuclear war. If the NPR’s diagnosis is understandable, however, the prescription is deeply misguided. In any event, the toughest problem the US and NATO face is political, and well beyond the scope of the NPR’s mandate. Russia has attacked the foundations of post-Cold War order in Europe, and has provided shelter and comfort to a chemical-weapons user in the Middle East.
