Tensions involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have “tamped down” talk of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation among United States allies at NATO, according to a senior NATO official. Speaking at U.S. Strategic Command’s Deterrence Symposium last week, Fred Frederickson, the director of the Nuclear Policy Division on the NATO International Staff, said arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation still remain a goal of some allies, but Russia’s actions have made nuclear reductions less of a priority for the alliance. “I would say that recent actions in Ukraine by Russia and over the longer run Russia’s nuclear doctrine, modernization programs, exercises, and this recent announcement that the U.S. has determined they’re in violation of the INF treaty may cause some allies to lower their expectations of progress on arms control and disarmament initiatives in NATO,” Frederickson told NS&D Monitor on the sidelines of the symposium.
Brad Roberts, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy in the Obama Administration, suggested the issue could be addressed at the upcoming NATO summit in Wales next month with a “re-endorsement” of the general approach to deterrence and defense that the alliance has pursued. He suggested over the next several years that the strategies outlined in the DDPR would come under question. “The DDPR began with the premise that Russia is not an enemy and not an ally but a partner. Russia clearly sees the alliance as an enemy, or at least Mr. Putin does,” said Roberts, who is now a consulting professor and William Perry Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He later added: “There will be an interesting nuclear discussion if Russia proceeds to break out of the INF Treaty and proceeds to deploy nuclear-tipped INF missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe. I think one of the interesting nuclear questions for the alliance is, ‘Was the trajectory we were on the right trajectory after all,’ or is there a different one?”
Jobs