ABSTRACT
Crisis management, including nuclear crisis management, is both a competitive and cooperative endeavor between military adversaries. A crisis is, by definition, a time of great tension and uncertainty. The first requirement of successful crisis management is communications transparency. Transparency includes clear signaling and undistorted communications. A fourth attribute of successful crisis management is that each side maintains an accurate perception of the other side's intentions and military capabilities. The outcome of a nuclear crisis management scenario influenced by information operations may not be a favorable one. In allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) territory, the United States (US) deploys several hundred sub-strategic, air-delivered nuclear weapons among bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Even with the best of intentions among US, NATO and Russian negotiators, the military-technical problems of coordinating ballistic missile defenses (BMD) command-control and communications systems are considerable.
