U.S. nuclear weapons modernization and the impact on the nuclear nonproliferation regime

Abstract

This chapter examines the tensions between United States (US) nuclear force modernization and the global nonproliferation regime, in the context of weakening US arms control/disarmament leadership and an increasingly challenging international security environment. It discusses the role that the US has played in driving the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and regime through its leadership and political will, albeit this has wavered at various intervals since its inception in 1968. The chapter looks at US nuclear modernization and examine the tensions between US modernization programs and the divisions this is producing within the nuclear NPT. In 1975, the 91 states-parties to the NPT met for the treaty’s first review conference and agreed to hold future conferences to review the implementation of the treaty every five years. Of course, the amplified declaratory statements and policy releases of the Trump administration appear to have only widened the gap between the United States modernization drive and meeting its obligations under the NPT.