US Sends Ambiguous Message With New Nuclear Posture Review - Arms Control Association

The United States is sending an ambiguous message to the world with its new Nuclear Posture Review at a time when there is an apparent demand to de-emphasize the salience of nuclear weapons and the threat of their employment in a potential conflict, Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2022) The United States is sending an ambiguous message to the world with its new Nuclear Posture Review at a time when there is an apparent demand to de-emphasize the salience of nuclear weapons and the threat of their employment in a potential conflict, Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said on Thursday.

"After delaying for nearly seven months the release of the public version of the classified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the Pentagon-led study sends muddled messages about the role of nuclear weapons in US defense strategy and foreign policy at a time when the United States should be more clearly de-emphasizing the salience of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear weapons use," Kimball said in a press release.

Kimball said the NPR appropriately "places renewed emphasis on nuclear arms control, nuclear nonproliferation and risk reduction," since the last existing US-Russian nuclear arms control treaty expires in less than three-and-a-half years amid the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine.

Kimball said the NPR considers verifiable nuclear arms control strategies to be "the most effective, durable and responsible path to reduce the role nuclear weapons in our strategy and prevent their use," while urging a nuclear risk reduction dialogue between the United States and its Primary adversaries Russia and China.

Earlier on Thursday, the US Defense Department published the NPR and noted the document reaffirms that the fundamental role of US nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, its allies and partners.

According to the NPR, the United States would only consider using nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend its vital interests and that of its allies and partners.