Most urgently, the United States must abandon its de facto posture of minimum nuclear deterrence and revert to the successful Cold War policy of matching the adversary’s nuclear capabilities. The United States must accept the unfortunate reality that nuclear warfare is no less possible today than it was thirty years ago when the Western Alliance relied on threats of escalation to avoid defeat in a conventional conflict. Expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal by uploading America’s reserve strategic warheads and producing new non-strategic warheads for existing platforms will cost a tiny fraction of the current defense budget and will do a great deal to offset the most significant vulnerability in U.S. and Allied defense. Besides outright capitulation, it is the only way to avoid nuclear conflagration, which otherwise seems to grow more probable with every passing day. 

Dr. Julian Spencer-Churchill is an associate professor of international relations at Concordia University and the author of Militarization and War (2007) and Strategic Nuclear Sharing (2014). He has published extensively on Pakistan security issues and arms control and completed research contracts at the Office of Treaty Verification at the Office of the Secretary of the Navy and the then Ballistic Missile Defense Office (BMDO). He has also conducted fieldwork in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Egypt and is a consultant. He is a former Operations Officer of the 3rd Field Engineer Regiment from the latter end of the Cold War to shortly after 9/11. He tweets at @Ju_Sp_Churchill.

Ben Ollerenshaw specializes in nuclear strategy and strategic studies in the International Security program at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

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