ABSTRACT
When the logic of reduction governs the quest for ZNW it carries with it two assumptions: one takes "reduction" to mean increasingly lower ceilings, and the second that each step from one ceiling to the next lower ceiling is implemented gradually. Specific holdings, deployments, and resultant capabilities are novel and never quite symmetric from party to party. All states, both nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states, would have to have confidence that the change would work. Denuclearization design calls for imagining, elaborating, exploring, and assessing proposals, and throughout creating novel options with useful features. The answer to the problem of "small numbers" is to place remaining warheads, in a short time—near-simultaneously—beyond use. One hypothesis is intuitively attractive: that the nuclear weapon states would be most willing to surrender sole control of their national nuclear forces to the physical control of a joint force of nuclear-state personnel.
