Journal Article

The Trump Nuclear Posture Review

Cimbala, Stephen J.

2018

Overview

President Donald J. Trump's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is especially important because of its timing and contents. Together with the administration's National Security Strategy and other documents related to defense and security policy, the NPR offers both continuity and change with respect to the Obama administration's policy statements and guidelines. Russia and China are identified in national security documents as US peer competitors and as systemic disrupters that constitute the main threats to international stability and future American security. This recognition in the NPR and other documents of a return to great power rivalry as the fulcrum of military-strategic activity, including deterrence, explicitly embraces political realism as the preferred model for interpreting international politics. The Trump administration NPR offers proposals and perspectives that require careful consideration by the US national security community. It is more evolutionary than revolutionary in recognizing the need to recapitalize the nuclear force and to rethink the need for flexible nuclear responses in a changing security environment. However, the implications for nuclear arms control are mixed.

• Publisher: Air University Press,Air Force Research Institute
• Subject: Arms control / Arms control & disarmament / Arms control agreements / Bomber aircraft / Competitors / Cruise missiles / Defense programs / Deterrence / Diplomacy / Management / Military aspects / Military defense / Military deployment / Military strategy / Missiles / Modernization / National security / Nuclear deterrence / Nuclear weapons / Policy Forum / Realism / Security / Security management / Trump, Donald J / War