Role, Reliance, and War on the Rocks

We rarely take liberties as co-hosts to talk about arcane and didactic international security subject matter. Or perhaps we do that every episode. At least we usually don’t spend a lot of time engaging in definitional combat. Austin, Matthew, Vipin, and I tried to do a little bit of that in Part I of this episode where we discussed the role of nuclear weapons vs. reliance on (or, because of Vipin, “salience of”) nuclear weapons. We asked ourselves whether these terms matter anymore, and if their relevance is fading, what does that say about the state of nuclear policy debates in DC and worldwide, the expert community’s interest in how nuclear weapons fit in national security strategy, and the level of understanding among international counterparts debating nuclear policy at fora such as the NPT Review Conference?

Some authors who’ve touched on the subject in recent years - largely in advance of nuclear posture reviews or policy processes - and i’m sure there are many more, but not many recently:

Brad Roberts: “On Adapting Nuclear Deterrence to Reduce Nuclear Risk.” 2020.

Sophia Becker and Elisabeth Suh: “How Biden’s Plan to Limit the Role of Nuclear Weapons Challenges NATO.” 2021

Matt Costlow: “A Net Assessment of ‘No First Use’ and ‘Sole Purpose’ Nuclear Policies.” 2021.

Adam Mount: “ The Biden Nuclear Posture Review: Obstacles to Reducing Reliance on Nuclear Weapons.“ 2022.

Amy Woolf (formerly of CRS): “U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy: Considering “No First Use.” Updated 2022.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com