Jon Wolfsthal on the link between nuclear strategy and the nuclear modernization budget
By John Mecklin | January 2, 2019
In this interview with editor-in-chief John Mecklin, nuclear arms control and nonproliferation expert Jon Wolfsthal provides his wide-ranging views on the current nuclear situation, how the new Congress might deal with US plans for a $1 trillion-plus modernization of its nuclear arsenal, and ways the inordinate cost of that modernization program might be reduced.
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Issue: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Volume 75 Issue 1
Keywords: arms race, nuclear budget, nuclear modernization, nuclear strategy
Topics: Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons
John Mecklin
John Mecklin is the editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune... Read More
My comment disappeared from the Bulletin’s reply board, I’m sending it again: The kind of purportedly rational and prudent “sufficient deterrence” argument J. Wolfsthal presents is doomed to strategic and geopolitical failure as it absolves the sins of the politically-expedient Obama administration and belittle the humanity-saving achievements of Gorbachev (the historical messiah of the anti-nuclear movement). President Obama indeed “made clear that as long as there were nuclear weapons, America’s arsenal would have to be safe, secure, and effective” and from there went on to manipulate Medvedev on his promise to practically do away with the anti-missile systems in eastern… Read more »