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March 17, 2014

EXPERT GROUP URGES MOVE AWAY FROM PROMPT LAUNCH STATUS, TACTICAL NUKE CUTS

By ExchangeMonitor

Removing U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons from prompt launch status and cutting the number of tactical nuclear weapons in the arsenals of each country could address the dual challenges of tightening budgets and international security, according to a report released yesterday by a group of prominent international nuclear weapons and arms control experts. The report, “Building Mutual Security in the Euro-Atlantic Region,” suggests that leaders of world powers remain locked in on “outdated Cold War-era security concepts” that are “producing a dangerous asymmetry between military capabilities and true political partnership.” The report, co-chaired by former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, former United Kingdom Defense Minister Des Browne, and former German Deputy Foreign Minister Wolfgang Ischinger, recommends that the U.S. and Russia could set an example for other nuclear weapons countries through a step by step removal of nuclear weapons from prompt launch status over the next 10 to 15 years. “If both the United States and Russia gradually remove nuclear weapons from prompt-launch status, taking into account developments in other nations, the threat of rapid mutual assured destruction as well as the chance of accidental, mistaken, or unauthorised launch can be sharply reduced,” the report says. 

The report also suggests that the U.S. and NATO should remove half of the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that are stored in Europe, which could trigger reciprocal steps by Russia with its tactical nuclear weapons. Within five years, the report suggests that all U.S. tactical nuclear weapons could be removed from Europe through mutual reductions with Russia. Such an approach “could give a greater sense of direction and pace to nuclear risk reduction in Europe,” the report says. “Moreover, the consolidation, reduction, and elimination of tactical nuclear weapons (combined with transparency, security, and confidence-building measures) whose very roots are grounded in Cold War concepts of deterrence could send a strong signal that European nations including Russia are moving away from mutual assured destruction to a new concept for mutual security.”

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