COULD DEM SUPPORT FOR MODERNIZATION DISAPPEAR WITHOUT FURTHER REDUCTIONS?

The conventional wisdom among Republicans advocating modernizing the nation’s nuclear weapons complex is that investments in the weapons complex are necessary to allow the nation to reduce its nuclear weapons arsenal. But a former Obama Administration official said late last week that the reverse is also true, and he suggested that existing support among Democrats for modernization could slip away if Republicans continue to block further stockpile reductions. “The Administration made clear that we view investments in the complex as a way to get to lower numbers of nuclear weapons we need to shift away from existing nuclear weapons that we don’t need to a responsive infrastructure,” said Jon Wolfsthal, the Deputy Director at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a former director on the National Security Council for nonproliferation. “But it’s increasingly clear that politically unless you have reductions of some kind you’re not going to be able to sustain support in the Congress from progressive sides to fund the complex which we know we desperately need.”