March 17, 2014

KISSINGER, SCOWCROFT CALL FOR CAUTION IN STOCKPILE REDUCTIONS

By ExchangeMonitor

Writing in the Washington Post, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft yesterday suggested a measured approach to future reductions to the nation’s nuclear stockpile based. Three hundred warheads, which is said to be the low end of the range of reductions being considered by the Obama Administration, is too low, the experts wrote. “Before momentum builds on that basis, we feel obliged to stress our conviction that the goal of future negotiations should be strategic stability and that lower numbers of weapons should be a consequence of strategic analysis, not an abstract preconceived determination,” they wrote.

The former officials recommended that any review of potential reductions deal with the consideration of eight factors, including the appropriate size and structure to maintain stable nuclear deterrence, U.S. extended deterrence commitments, negotiations not only with Russia but with other nuclear weapons states once stockpiles are low enough, the interrelationship between nuclear weapons and missile defense and conventional weapons, and the verifiability of future reductions.

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