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latimes.comOpinionA comprehensive nuclear arms strategyThe administration's
Nuclear Posture Review outlines the means to achieve greater security from
worldwide nuclear dangers. Nonproliferation and counter-terrorism are
central to the strategy.

By Joe Biden

April 7, 2010
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When I joined the Senate in 1973, crafting nuclear policy meant mastering
arcane issues like nuclear stability and deterrence theory. With the end of
the Cold War and a new relationship between our country and Russia,
thankfully these subjects no longer dominate public discourse. Today, the
danger of deliberate, global nuclear war has all but disappeared, but the
nuclear threats we face from terrorists and non-nuclear states seeking to
acquire such weapons are graver than ever.

On Tuesday, President Obama took an important step toward addressing these
threats by releasing a plan that will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in
our national security strategy while ensuring that our nuclear arsenal
remains safe, secure and effective for as long as it is needed. The Nuclear
Posture Review outlines a strategy, supported unanimously by the national
security cabinet, for greater security from nuclear dangers and implements
the agenda that President Obama first outlined in Prague just over a year
ago to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to pursue the peace and
security of a world without them.

This new strategy, a sharp departure from previous Nuclear Posture Reviews
released in 2001 and 1994, leaves Cold War thinking behind. It recognizes
that the greatest threat to U.S. and global security is no longer a nuclear
exchange between nations, but nuclear terrorism by extremists and the spread
of nuclear weapons to an increasing number of states. From now on, decisions
about the number of weapons we have and how they are deployed will take
nonproliferation and counter-terrorism into account, rather than being
solely based on the objective of stable deterrence.

The review contains a clear rationale for the reductions called for under
the New START treaty -- a 30% reduction from the previous agreement. Because
of advances in conventional capabilities and technologies such as missile
defense, we need fewer nuclear weapons to deter adversaries and protect our
allies than we did even a decade ago. Under the new review, we will retain
only those weapons needed for our core requirements.

The plan also establishes a policy that the United States will not use or
threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, as long as they
are party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and in compliance with
their nuclear nonproliferation obligations. This approach provides
additional incentive for countries to fully comply with nonproliferation
norms. Those that do not will be more isolated and less secure.

The completion of a Nuclear Posture Review that is grounded in a commitment
to American security will better protect us and our allies from nuclear
threats. So will the signing of the New START treaty Thursday. And the
unprecedented Nuclear Security Summit the president will host next week --
with its focus on securing vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in
four years -- will advance these goals still further.

At the same time, the president is determined to ensure that our nuclear
weapons remain absolutely safe, secure and effective. That is why he has
asked Congress to increase funding for our nuclear complex by $5 billion
over the next five years, allowing us to upgrade aging facilities and
recruit and retain the highly skilled scientists and engineers needed to
sustain our arsenal. Our plan reverses a decade-long erosion in support for
the national laboratories. This commitment will ensure that our arsenal
remains ready.

We can achieve these objectives while upholding this country's nearly
two-decade moratorium on nuclear tests and continuing our efforts to ratify
the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. And although we will not develop
new warheads or add military capabilities as we manage our arsenal for the
future, we will pursue needed life-extension programs so the weapons we
retain can be sustained. This approach has broad support, and, as Defense
Secretary Robert Gates states in his preface to the Nuclear Posture Review,
it is a "credible modernization plan necessary to sustain the nuclear
infrastructure and support our nation's deterrent."

The president and I made a promise to the American people to protect them
from nuclear risks. We have no higher obligation. Our strategy delivers on
that promise and tackles the most immediate threats our planet faces.

Joe Biden is vice president of the United States.

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times <http://www.latimes.com/>

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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.co