The U.S. Shouldn’t Limit Its Nuclear Options

As part of a review of the U.S.’s nuclear-weapons policy, President Joe Biden is considering whether to declare that the “sole purpose” of the country’s arsenal is to deter a nuclear attack. The idea is to reduce the likelihood of conflict with Russia or China. In practice, it risks doing the opposite. The administration should increase engagement with both allies and other nuclear powers before moving forward.

The U.S. has long maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity on the use of nuclear weapons. This was critical during the earliest years of the Cold War, when America’s nuclear monopoly served as a deterrent against conventional Soviet aggression in western Europe. The idea of a nuclear first strike became harder to contemplate once the USSR amassed its own stockpile of warheads, but U.S. policy makers still reserved the option. The Trump administration made this explicit, declaring the U.S.’s arsenal “essential” to deterring a nuclear attack by Russia, China or North Korea, as well as “non-nuclear strategic attacks and large-scale conventional aggression” against the U.S. or its allies.