Christopher F. Chyba and J. D. Crouch
Understanding the U.S.
Nuclear Weapons Policy
Debate
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 requires the U.S.
secretary of defense to conduct a nuclear posture review (NPR) in consultation
with the secretaries of energy and state, and to report the results to Congress
before the end of 2009.1 The NPR, therefore, will be the Obama administration’s
forum for reviewing U.S. nuclear weapons policy, posture, and related
programmatic and technical issues.2 Navigating and choosing among sharp
disagreements in each of these areas, in order to map the wisest path forward for
national and international security, is a difficult task. President Barack Obama
has already made decisions on a number of important nuclear issues, but the
NPR will need to relate these to the overall nuclear weapons posture.3 How will
his desire to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) relate to
the size and capabilities of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex? Should the
United States arm some Trident submarines with conventionally/-tipped ballistic
missiles? Should it pursue new arms control agreements with Russia beyond
negotiating a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)? What should
medium/-term U.S. objectives for strategic and non/-strategic warhead numbers
and types be? What about ballistic missile defense? The list of important
Copyright # 2009 Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Washington Quarterly • 32:3 pp. 2136
DOI: 10.1080/01636600903011879
Christopher F. Chyba is professor of astrophysics and international affairs at Princeton
University, where he directs the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow
Wilson School, and a former National Security Council staff member in the Clinton
administration. He may be reached at cchyba@princeton.edu. J. D. Crouch is executive vice
president at Qinetiq North America and was deputy national security advisor in the George
W. Bush administration. He may be reached at jdcrouch@yahoo.com. This essay grows out