NFU is Good Nuclear Policy

By Ramesh Thakur

Professor Ramesh Thakur is Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament at Australian National University. He is a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, co-convenor of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, and author or editor of 50 books and 400 articles and book chapters.

Geopolitical tensions have risen in Europe since the Russia-Ukraine crisis in 2014; in South Asia with the flare-up in Kashmir; and in East Asia with the growing assertiveness of China in its maritime territorial disputes and the continuing series of nuclear tests by North Korea. As a consequence, nuclear risks have also intensified, making President Barack Obama’s 2009 Prague dream of a world freed of nuclear threats an increasingly distant memory. However, great power tensions make nuclear arms control more difficult but also more urgent, and in the closing months of his presidency, Obama has one last chance to resurrect the dream.

Nuclear arms control has several interrelated components, including freezing and reducing numbers of warheads and delivery missiles; cutting back on weapons deployments; and modifying nuclear policy to minimize risky postures and consolidate stability-enhancing practices. One such measure that Obama is reportedly contemplating is a no-first-use (NFU) policy: a declaration that the U.S. will use nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear attack on America or its allies, or in a modified form, against biological, chemical, and nuclear attacks. Thus, the use of nuclear weapons would be ruled out against conventional attacks, regardless of their scale.

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