National Security Program | Memo
The Obama Nuclear Doctrine: Protection in a New Era of Nuclear Threats
The Obama administration’s nuclear doctrine, defined by New START, the Nuclear Security Summit, and the Nuclear Posture Review, is a responsible approach to improving US security. It builds on a long, bipartisan history of seeking to contain and reduce the prevalence of nuclear weapons around the world. It properly places the threat of nuclear terrorism as a top security priority, clarifies the US nuclear position for our allies, and singles out bad actors, like Iran and North Korea, as worthy of international sanction and exempt from any US security guarantees. In this memo, we offer a short review of the three prongs in the Obama nuclear doctrine and responses to the developing conservative narrative about it.
