We aim to show this by highlighting the history of tactical nuclear weapons across five nations-the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France (the five treaty-accepted nuclear weapon states under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT)-and the reasons that these nations made incredible progress in reducing these nuclear capabilities around the world. The strategic and practical reasons that most nuclear-armed nations reduced, retired, and avoided deploying tactical nuclear weapons still hold today, and are perhaps even more important to nations navigating the current security environment than during the Cold War. Rather than contributing to strategic deterrence, we believe that tactical nuclear weapons actually undermine it-by enabling a lower threshold for nuclear weapons use through deploying weapons with a relatively lower yield which are sometimes erroneously portrayed as being “smaller” and thus more “acceptable,” “credible,” or potentially “controlled,” despite their enormously destructive potential. The vast and complex security threats that exist in the world today make tactical nuclear weapons even more dangerous than they were during the last century-a landscape where many types of these weapons were deployed in multiple regions, poised for use in escalating battle across the nuclear threshold. The myriad security challenges shaping the global security environment today have given rise to some experts and officials calling for a ramp-up in tactical nuclear weapons and a return to the wider deployment of these systems that characterized the Cold War. To be sure, the latter path sharply raises the risks of nuclear weapons being used, whether intentionally in conflict or from the serious miscalculations that can occur in the fog of war. Can the world end tactical nuclear weapons, or are we doomed to their expansion? The statements above showcase that we are at an inflection point that will shape the international security environment for decades. These events are part of an increasing focus on tactical nuclear weapons in various corners of the globe-both for their perceived utility and their dangers. In stark contrast, this spring, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka proudly announced that tactical nuclear weapons from Russia “more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” had arrived to be stationed in his country. Nuclear-armed countries must renounce the use of these unconscionable weapons – anytime, anywhere.” 1 ![]() In February 2023, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres issued a public warning: “We are at the highest risk in decades of a nuclear war that could start by accident or design.” He followed with a call to action: “The so-called ‘tactical’ use of nuclear weapons is absurd.
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