Deter,
Dissuade, Deny, Defend (D4) …
Strategic
Capabilities for the 21st Century
September 21 and 22, 1999
Key
Symposium Observations:
The
National Defense University’s 1999 Joint Operations Symposium “Deter,
Dissuade, Deny, Defend (D4 ) … Strategic Capabilities for the 21st
Century” was held in Washington, D.C. on September 21 and 22, 1999.
The
Symposium's purpose was:
-
to bring
attention to issues surrounding the evolving offense-defense mix, the
intelligence revolution, and new diplomatic challenges that face the United
States with regard to our strategic capabilities;
-
to launch
a series of meetings and studies in FY 2000, sponsored by INSS/NDU, examining
the issues related to deterrence, dissuasion and defense in the 21st
Century;
-
to
examine the current and future role of the United States Strategic Command to
fulfill strategic mission requirements for the next 20 years; and
-
to help
the Department of Defense think about near term and longer term capabilities and
changes in strategic deterrence, dissuasion, denial and defense missions from
offensive, defensive, intelligence and diplomatic perspectives.
Keynote
speeches and panels were organized around the four perspective areas:
offense, defense, intelligence, and diplomatic and arms control
contributions to Deterrence, Dissuasion, Denial and Defense (D4).
The
following general observations were offered:
There
was general agreement on:
Deeply
buried targets.
We need a capability to hold at risk deeply buried targets.
Weapons in our current inventory are not ideally suited to address this
problem. In the absence of such
weapons, an adversary may take risks he wouldn’t otherwise take, because he
feels he’s invulnerable.
Missile
defenses.
The United States needs to field national and theater missile defenses.
And we haven’t done enough with our allies in the area
of theater missile defenses for either the tactical warfight, or especially for
defending allied territory, and need to do so.
Risk
management.
We need to think more about distribution of risk amongst our strategic
capabilities, including offensive forces, defensive forces, intelligence, and
diplomatic efforts, not just in arms control but in our bilateral and
multilateral relationships with powers, great and small.
Preemption
and Counterproliferation. Several speakers
advocated the development and employment of preemptive and counterproliferation
capabilities.
There
were significant disagreements on:
Strategic
ambiguity versus certainty. This
was an area of controversy for several panels.
Some felt that preserving ambiguity as to what our response might be to
an adversary’s actions were important to give our adversary pause, to think
all options are open, and secondly not lock in our leadership to specific
actions and/or responses. On the
other hand, we’re pressured by others for lower numbers of nuclear weapons,
and “no first use” commitments.
All
WMD are the same, versus nuclear weapons are different. Some suggested that all weapons of mass destruction be
treated the same. Others felt that
nuclear weapons had such an overwhelmingly destructive power, that they were
categorically different from biological or chemical weapons, and therefore
should be treated differently. Also,
the United States has a self-professed need for nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
Fielding
missile defense systems. The Administration
believes it knows what national and theater missile defense systems it intends
to field, and that that part of the debate is over.
On the other hand, more than one speaker suggested that the United States
has no coherent policy on missile defenses, and specific plans are in abeyance.
Others believe that the missile defense architecture under consideration,
a ground-based architecture, has as its foundation the political desire to
maintain the ABM treaty as the cornerstone of strategic stability.
And that if the ABM Treaty did not exist, we would not be pursuing the
types of defenses. We need more
effective and more affordable ballistic missile defense systems, which are
space-based and sea-based.
Deterrence
works versus deterrence doesn’t work. Is it
too uncertain to depend upon? Is it
a strategy of weakness, as was suggested by one speaker?
Others felt strongly that deterrence, particularly as part of an overall,
integrated, and coherent strategy does work.
The answer lies in whether the adversary is willing to be deterred?
Elimination
of nuclear weapons. One speaker suggested
that our nuclear arsenal was becoming less of a strategic asset, and more of a
strategic liability. Some speakers
suggested that elimination of nuclear weapons should be our ultimate goal, and
short of eliminating them altogether, we should reduce them to the lowest levels
possible, to a “core
deterrent” level. One speaker
suggested that nuclear weapons no longer serve as a deterrent, because we
wouldn’t use them, short of a direct attack with nuclear weapons on the United
States. Others believed that
nuclear weapons remain the ultimate deterrent, and we need to keep them in the
inventory, modernize and test them.
Arms
control is harmful at worst and irrelevant at best. One speaker argued that arms control is an artifact of the
Cold War. Arms control agreement
result in the U.S. abiding by it, thus limiting its own developmental
capabilities, but have little impact on the other parties to the agreement.
Pursuing an arms control agenda also promotes an adversarial relationship
with Russia, and is perpetuating a conflict in which Russia will be the loser.
Another speaker suggested that the cornerstone of international efforts to
prevent the spread of nuclear weapons is, and must remain, the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty. He pointed
to the successful establishment of nuclear free zones in Latin America, Africa,
and Southeast Asia. He also
advocated reducing the political value of nuclear weapons.
There
were significant suggestions in the following areas:
The
following areas may merit significant further research, discussion, and/or
resolution:
-
Offensive roles for information operations
-
Strategic ambiguity versus certainty on use of nuclear weapons
-
Missile defense systems which are feasible, effective, and affordable
-
Unilateral versus cooperative development of missile defenses
-
What extended defenses do we need, and how do we proceed?
-
Does deterrence work? Perhaps
we should ask our adversaries?
-
Do nuclear weapons deter biological and/or chemical weapons?
-
What preemptive and/counterproliferation capabilities do we need to
develop?
- How do we maximize our intelligence collection and analysis capabilities?
Deter,
Dissuade, Deny, Defend ( D4)
…
Strategic
Capabilities for the 21st Century
September
21 and 22, 1999
FULL
REPORT
The
National Defense University’s 1999 Joint Operations Symposium “Deter,
Dissuade, Deny, Defend ( D4)
… Strategic Capabilities for the 21st Century” was held in
Washington, D.C. on September 21 and 22, 1999.
Its
purpose was:
-
to bring
attention to issues surrounding the evolving offense-defense mix, the
intelligence revolution, and new diplomatic challenges that face the United
States with regard to our strategic capabilities;
-
to launch
a series of meetings and studies in FY 2000, sponsored by INSS/NDU, examining
the issues related to deterrence, dissuasion and defense in the 21st
Century;
-
to
examine the current and future role of the United States Strategic Command to
fulfill strategic mission requirements for the next 20 years; and
-
to help
the Department of Defense think about near term and longer term capabilities and
changes in strategic deterrence, dissuasion, denial and defense missions from
offensive, defensive, intelligence and diplomatic perspectives.
Background:
During
the Cold War, our deterrent strategy was based on a series of symmetrical
relationships and arrangements, in a bipolar framework.
Reciprocity was fundamental in that vocabulary of arms control.
Over time with a degree of certainty and predictability, a set of rules
of engagement, albeit unwritten, emerged.
Following
the end of the Cold War, we witnessed a steep decline in the importance of
nuclear forces, and strategic deterrence. However,
the nuclear detonations in India and Pakistan have served as a wake-up call.
It was a clear signal that nuclear weapons will continue to play a strong
role in the international security environment.
Nuclear
weapons will remain indispensable to our national security interests, as a hedge
against uncertainty, as a guarantee of our security commitment to our allies,
and hopefully as a disincentive to those who would contemplate developing
weapons of mass destruction of their own.
Today,
however, given the unprecedented asymmetries of a profoundly changed multi-polar
world, the predictable world we once knew, has been replaced by a world of
uncertainty without any well-defined rules of engagement.
Strategic
capabilities for the 21st Century. We
are at a crossroads. This nation
has a genuine need for a broader, more comprehensive framework for deterrence
and arms control. The proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery pose the greatest
threat to global stability and security, and the greatest challenge to strategic
deterrence. The issue may not be
whether weapons of mass destruction will be used against the west by a rogue
nation or transnational actor, but rather where and when.
We
must find a way of sustaining deterrence. Our
deterrence capabilities can erode quickly, and our strategic defense
infrastructure can perish, if it’s not properly nurtured and maintained.
So today, we need a broader framework of strategic thought, one that goes
beyond deterrence, one that maintains continuity with the past, but also one
that’s flexible enough to respond to future threats and challenges.
We
also need a careful, prudent reassessment of the relationships between
deterrence and arms control, that relationship that so codified the nature and
relationship of our classic Cold War deterrence. Arms control will continue to be an important means to
maintaining the peace, and promoting cooperation between former Cold War
adversaries, but it also needs to adapt and become more flexible to enhance the
deterrence, dissuasion, denial and defense of those unpredictable threats of the
future.
A
stewardship of nuclear forces since the end of World War II has significantly
shaped the geopolitical landscape, and had a great restraining influence on the
great powers of the world from engaging in those costly global wars that defined
the first 50 years of this century. But
as we look ahead, as our nuclear forces will play a critical, but diminished
role in the future, it’s become increasingly clear that this nation must
pursue a flexible nuclear deterrent strategy and arms control regime.
Mutual
vulnerability, and the threat of massive retaliation,
must be integrated with other measures, including strategies of compellance,
reassurance, dissuasion, and denial. Our
strategy needs to coherently integrate political, economic, and military
incentives, as well as penalties.
Strategic
defenses.
The ABM treaty remains the most significant obstacle to deployment of a
national missile defense system, and is considered by many to be a Cold War
relic, negotiated under circumstances which are far different than today’s
situation.
In
a multi-polar world of greater uncertainty and more diverse threats, some form
of strategic defense is both appropriate and inevitable. But, it should be part of a coherent deterrent policy that
takes into consideration not just the threat, but also cost effectiveness and
operational effectiveness of the defensive system, and the impact of its
deployment upon our allies and potential adversaries, and arms control
agreements.
Russia
is not really immune from the dangers of proliferation. She's surrounded by them.
And therefore, a collaborative approach of shared early warning,
modification of the ABM treaty, and a broader, multi-national missile defense
might be in both our mutual national interests.
As
we face a world of more diverse and less predictable threats, we also need to
more clearly identify the center of gravity of those asymmetrical threats, and
determine how to hold them convincingly at risk. If
we can’t do that, our deterrence will be hollow.
The Cold War nuclear arsenal that we have inherited was never designed
nor intended to address some of the proliferation threats we may now face.
We need to think about how we adapt our existing capabilities to be
credible against these new threats. Because
of the diversity and uncertainty of the threats, we need forces which are
capabilities-based and effects-based, rather than purely threat-based.
Every player from the military and intelligence communities to our
inter-agency partners needs to work together to find answers to some tough,
provocative questions.
We
must maintain strategic stability in the face of changing unpredictable
challenges to our vital national security interests.
We can see the wisdom of maintaining the continuity of a credible, stable
deterrent, while allowing a broader application of our deterrent capabilities to
emerging threats. We can see the
importance of maintaining plans that are every bit as flexible, adaptive, and
responsive to as the capabilities they support.
However,
we really need to encourage a vision for strategic deterrence.
The conference provides a good opportunity to continue the debate and
dialogue, to help our national security policy makers to craft a coherent 21st
century deterrence architecture, a roadmap to evolve and adapt our national
security policy, our force structures, and our postures.
We need to counter the realities of proliferation, proliferation of
asymmetrical threats, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their
means of delivery, and the proliferation of deep underground military
facilities. And at the same time,
we need to promote a greater awareness of the opportunity and needs for a more
balanced relationship among the 4 Ds (deter, dissuade, deny, and defend), in a
profoundly changing world.
Panel I:
Offensive Contributions to D4. The panel was asked to address the following questions:
“Do nuclear weapons have a clear role in deterring chemical and
biological warfare?” “Is
modernization of the stockpile inconsistent with reduced reliance on nuclear
weapons, or is modernization essential to prevent us from being self-deterred,
to prevent our deterrence from becoming hollow?”
“What is the potential of information operations (IO)?”
“Can those IO capabilities be used to complement our strategic
forces?” “If we have the
capabilities to destroy a nation’s financial networks through IO, wouldn’t
that be a strategic non-lethal weapon, and could that capability be used to
deter or dissuade?” “Could we
enhance our deterrent strategy by giving others selected visibility into our IO
capabilities, or do really risk losing those capabilities by doing so?”
Four
panelists addressed the subject of offensive contributions to
D4 in presentations on: sizing
the deterrent, nuclear forces policy in the Clinton Administration, regional
strategies and strategic capabilities, and strategic capabilities for the 21st
Century as more then the Triad.
There
was agreement that nuclear weapons have a clear role in deterring nuclear
weapons, perhaps less clear in deterring biological or chemical weapons. They felt that some modernization of the stockpile was
essential to meet the evolving threat. They
also felt that weapons modifications and/or development of precision munitions
which could minimize collateral damage and be effective against specific target
sets was necessary, and would add to our offensive deterrence capabilities.
And although the subject of information operations was addressed only in
general terms by the panel, its members would probably agree that this is an
area which needs greater attention, development, and exploitation as part of our
strategic offensive capability.
There
was general agreement that deterrence, as we knew it in the Cold War, worked. They also agreed that nuclear weapons had a deterrent role in
today’s world, and for the foreseeable future.
One speaker said that deterrence is the most important strategy ever
articulated by the United States, and that it continues to be so. Its purpose is
to convince other nations that acts of aggression will have unacceptable risks
to them in the form of swift and assured retaliation for those acts, so much so
that the act will not take place in the first place.
And in its present form, deterrence has a single purpose, that is, to
prevent war, to deter the enemy from acts of aggression.
Another speaker asked the question, “What will the U.S. seek to deter?
He said we’re facing a thousand snakes, in the form of regional
dangers, asymmetric challenges, transnational threats, and wild cards equipped
with increasingly advanced weapons and the means of their delivery, and with few
or no rules of war, or that we recognize as rules of war.
He also asked whether our currently programmed forces meet our deterrent
needs. And he answered both
questions with, “So long as the future looks like that past, we’re ready.
These
two approaches framed the debate on offensive contributions to
D4. The panelists agreed that as a strategy, deterrence is not
static, It must be adapted to conditions as they change, and if done well, will
anticipate changes that are likely to occur.
One speaker highlighted the importance of a systems view in examining
strategic deterrence as a roadmap for the future, and introduced the concept of
nuclear forces as restorative forces, in a dynamic equilibrium.
That is, as a deterrent, they could help de-escalate a crisis.
In
a later presentation on intelligence, we were reminded that deterrence works if,
and only if, the adversary or potential adversary wants to be deterred.
This raises the bar on deterrence as a strategy.
It implies knowing, or being able to anticipate an adversary’s
capabilities and intentions (discussed by the intelligence panel), being able to
identify the adversary’s centers of gravity, and determine how to hold him
convincingly at risk, and having the capabilities and willingness to employ
them, offensively and defensively, to ensure compliance with U.S. strategic
objectives.
So,
deterrence works. However,
deterrence today is different than what we knew it to be during the Cold War.
An effective deterrence strategy has to be more comprehensive, and draws
on a wide range of resources and capabilities, including political and
diplomatic, economic, intelligence, technology, and military assets.
Deterrence
across the continuum. In developing a deterrence
strategy, one should try to anticipate everything from low level or emerging
crises, in which you might need political, economic, or diplomatic efforts only,
all the way up to insensate (unlimited and sustained) or all-out war.
Role
of the Analyst. The job of the analyst and
planner is a much more difficult and complicated job than that of the
decision-maker when an actual crisis unfolds.
When you’re trying to examine complex issues, the analyst needs to look
at all the possibilities and options. He
has to suspend disbelief and incredulity, when attempting to think about major
crises, emergencies, and wars that are not yet understood in any sort of
specifics. The decision-maker is
not nearly so handicapped when an actual situation arises, and can often deal
with a simple and limited number of options right away.
But the decisions should build on the work of the analyst and planner,
who must look at all of the options that are available.
Ambiguity
versus certainty. This was an area of
controversy on several panels. One
panelist suggested that preserving ambiguity as to what our response might be to
an adversary’s actions were important, for two reasons, one to give our
adversary pause, and two, not lock in our leadership to specific actions and/or
responses. Another suggested that
while Saddam Hussein was thought to be an irrational thinker, when he was told
by the National Command Authority that he would pay dearly if he considered the
use of WMD, he backed down. The
offensive panel was in general agreement that we need to keep our options open,
and at least be willing to consider the use of nuclear weapons.
There was more discussion of this issue in the panel on diplomacy and
arms control.
Restorative
forces.
Our strategy, should be to take this concept of deterrence (restoring
forces, restorative forces), and apply them across the full spectrum of
conflict, to develop a systems solution that is equally robust, no matter what
the condition. We should attempt by design, to integrate all of our military
preparations and planning into a cohesive strategy to effectively deal with any
contingency, at any stage of escalation.
Target
driven strategy. In reviewing our
deterrence strategy during the Cold War, one speaker described a “target
driven strategy” consisting of four principal categories of targets:
strategic nuclear forces, leadership, other military targets, and war
supporting industries. The idea was to hold at risk the greatest percentage of each
in each category. Overlaying that
was a value system of limiting damage to the United States and never to
intentionally target civilians. The
speaker suggested that in sizing the deterrent in the new environment, we have
to look not only at Russian targets, but also, against a wider spectrum of WMD
targets. We have to try and deter
at all levels the simplest set of targeting categories, which at the starting
point might be WMD forces, leadership, other military targets, war supporting
industries, and WMD production and storage sites.
Deterrence
as a strategy or process? One speaker summed up by
saying that deterrence is not a strategy, but a process, a process with inputs
and outputs. Depending upon what
we're willing to put into the process will determine to some extent what we
should expect out of it. Developing
a targeting strategy and forces to support that strategy is a creative art.
The greater mental juxtaposition that we can take of all the forces, the
more potent will be our deterrence. Deterrence
will never be static, but will dynamically change over time.
The full integration of all U.S. forces into their operational strategy
will deal with any level of sophistication of conflict, is needed and imminently
possible.
Nuclear
forces policy.
One speaker addressed the nuclear forces policy of the Clinton
Administration. He told us that the
Administration has reaffirmed that nuclear weapons will continue as a vital
hedge against an uncertain future, a guarantee of our security commitments to
our allies, and a disincentive to those who would contemplate developing or
otherwise acquiring nuclear weapons.
Shared
early warning initiative. The Administration is
also working on a “shared early warning initiative” with Russia.
Absent nuclear testing, we’re working on a program to assure the safety
and reliability of our nuclear stockpile, a joint program with the Departments
of Defense and Energy and the weapons laboratories.
Sustainment. In order to ensure sustainment of our nuclear forces, the
Administration is also developing a nuclear mission management plan, which in
the long run will provide a roadmap for DoD to examine its near and long-term
capabilities and plans to support nuclear missions. It will include readiness, modernization, support forces and
infrastructure, and most importantly its human resources.
Long-term
viability.
The Administration is working on ensuring long-term viability of research
and development, the industrial base, and manufacturing infrastructure, and
systems acquisition effort. We’re
replacing aging components, and designing to meet future needs; monitoring
health of strategic systems to ensure survivability and effectiveness against
threats, and the need for life extension programs.
Theater
nuclear forces.
The Administration will maintain support for dual-capable aircraft in
Europe with both conventional and nuclear roles, and needs to address nuclear
capabilities for follow-on’s to F15s and F16s, and sustainment of the nuclear
variant of the Tomahawk land attack missile.
Command
and control is the fourth element of Triad. We still require a robust survival and
effective command and control systems for early warning, attack assessments, and
force direction in support of existing nuclear employment plans and associated
contingencies. We should not
expect, nor does it logically follow, that savings derived from reduced forces
will be matched, even in relative terms, from savings in the cost of nuclear
command and control. Redundancy is
critical, because the relevant nuclear effects have never been fully verified.
And finally, quality in people is the most important ingredient to
sustain a nuclear deterrent.
Regional
strategies and strategic capabilities. One
speaker suggested that nuclear weapons have less importance today than at any
time in this century, and that conventional dominance is our game today.
Even with that however, we’re more insecure than ever, especially when
we talk about non-state actors and rogue nations, or asymmetric approaches on a
global scale. The enemy is not so
clearly defined today. We have proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, with
Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the most obvious threats today.
Avoiding
casualties.
For any type of military commitment, there are higher expectations, more
so than ever, in terms of casualties. We
don’t take as many risks. We
prefer in smaller scale conflicts, not to put our folks at risk as we were
committed to in the past.
Smaller
structure and less advocacy. Our commitment of
resources to our strategic force structure is smaller than it has been in the
past, and proportionately there’s less senior level advocacy and involvement
than there was.
Deterrence
from a regional perspective. When we talk
about deterrence, the Cold War style deterrence is not as effective in a
regional perspective, as it had been in the past.
Strategic
challenges are weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. The challenges at the strategic level faced by the regional
CINCs are weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
Once the non-state actors and rogue nations have gained access to them,
what do we need to do? How do we deter?
Preemptive
strikes.
We need to consider pre-emptive strikes, if need be.
We need to consider how we’re going to punish the perpetrators if they
use weapons of mass destruction. We
need to think more about intelligence, and how we leverage the intelligence
infrastructure to support deterrence, maybe preemptively with nuclear or
conventional options, go after and strike the potential perpetrators.
And again punish them in the end.
Deeply
buried targets. How do we hold some of the
hard and deeply buried targets at risk? Many
of our nuclear weapons are not ideally suited for that, some are.
There may be a need to derive certain additional weapons to meet those
requirements, for some of the hard to get, hard and deeply buried targets.
We’re working on advance conventional munitions, to address this
shortfall, but may need a nuclear option, as well.
Better
policy support for regional CINCs. We
need better integration of our national policy in supporting the challenges
faced by the regional CINCs. Today
our policies are more geared toward the national and global level. From that perspective, it’s more Russian-centric than it
has been before. Our vision of
deterrence still relies on overwhelming retaliation.
It’s based on numbers, on awareness of capabilities, on the fear of the
destructive capabilities of those weapons.
Nuclear
deterrence for WMD. From
a regional perspective, nuclear weapons came into play (during the Gulf War),
and paid a big dividend, by not only having the capability, but sending the
message that we were willing to use them preemptively or in retaliation.
Deterring
less “rational” adversaries. Today
the CINCs face those that are less rationale in thought, rogue states and
non-state actors. The CINCs’
approaches to deterrence, in terms of first-use, or in retaliation, how is that
backed up by our national policy? That
is a gap we have to close. CINCs plan extensively with the help of STRATCOM, in
looking at options, at target sets, at comparing the capabilities that we have
to offer, and considering at what time it is appropriate to use the weapons.
They recognize that deterrence had a great strength during the Cold War,
but it paid dividends, and was well worth the commitment on our nation’s part.
But still, the policy piece, in
terms of deterrence on a regional level, there seems to be a gap there.
We need to ramp up the visibility, involvement, and advocacy of weapons
from a theater perspective, to ensure that we can derive the same benefits from
deterrence as we did during the Cold War.
Intelligence
and warning.
Intelligence and warning at regional levels is challenging, more so than
at the national level, particularly with rogue nations and non-state actors.
Part of the solution to this challenge may be the use of federated
intelligence support, and virtual strike planning centers, where out-of-theater
assets are employed in real-time to assist local commanders in planning, target
selection and other support.
STRATCOM’s
suite of strategic capabilities. STRATCOM
is focusing on the development of a suite of capabilities from concepts to
hardware that transcends the Triad. One
speaker believed that regional stability is the key to much of our national
strategic security. It’s no
longer enough to plan for a war with a major competitor, but to define and plan
options that deal with a broader continuum of concerns, the asymmetric
challenge. Need to figure out how
to deter an adversary who has no return address, or worse, addresses that cross
traditional nation state boundaries.
The
Triad and more. The speaker advocated a
need to look at force mixes in the Triad and beyond. He recommended we examine capability force structures beyond
the numbers, to a mixture of conventional, information operations, nuclear
tools, etc. We have no
capability-based, universally tailorable, deep- target weapons. Governments are
encourage to take risks when they believe their war making facilities are
invulnerable to the planners and capabilities of their enemies.
He asked, “Are there new systems or concepts to which we can turn in
the future to perform the deterrent mission, e.g., technologies, information
warfare, computer supported technologies and methodologies, advanced kinetics,
etc.?
Prevent
war rather than prevail in war. One
speaker suggested that this is our ultimate goal, and he challenged us to work
collectively on charting a future course, choosing the right security path to
the future. He suggested that the
task is at least two-fold: One, to
fully and accurately be able to recognize and measure our adversaries, and to
predict their intentions and capabilities.
And two (as a step function in a strategy-to-task, risk management
fashion), to formulate the correct policies and strategy, that result in
selecting the right technologies and acquiring the right capabilities to deter,
dissuade, or deny, and/or defend against enemy aims, and harmful intentions or
actions, no matter where they fall on the continuum.
Russian-centric
deterrence.
Panelists believed that our deterrence policy remains Russian-centric,
because Russia maintains the largest capability to destroy the U.S.
And there is uncertainty as to what may evolve in Russia.
They also believed that China remains a threat, and that in the future
rogue states will pose a significant threat.
Weapons
development. The
panel pondered the question on weapons capabilities.
Do we have right weapons to deter; if not do we have the right weapons to
hold their key value structures at risk? They
advocated the development of precise weapons with low collateral damage in
increase the credibility of deterrence to these threats.
Homeland
versus theater defenses. In response to a question
about distinguishing between homeland and theater weapons, they believed the
distinction is blurred due to increasing capacities of potential adversaries.
Longer range ballistic missiles, and weapons of mass destruction are
today strategic, operational and tactical.
We need to think of every strategic weapon in a theater context, and we
need to think of this as a common element in our deterrence.
In addition, what starts as a tactical event can become a strategic one
in minutes or hours, due to the “CNN effect”, that is real-time coverage of
theater events.
Nuclear
weapons off the table. One questioner suggested
that an adversary could take nuclear weapons off the table by assuring the
United States that it had no intention of attacking our core national security
interests in our homeland or in the theater.
The panel’s response was, “Our adversaries don’t get to decide, we
do.”
Another
question raised the issue of the lack of resources to prosecute either one or
two major theater war scenarios. Downsizing,
recruiting problems, budget cuts, and the high operations tempo today of both
active and reserve forces, has already overly committed our military forces.
The response was that the crucial issue was to have a capabilities-based
force structure. The issue then is,
how you manage risk.
In
summary, deterrence from an offensive military perspective means that your
military forces must be credible, capable and relevant.
Panel II:
Contributions of the Intelligence Community to
D4. The panel was asked to address the following questions:
“Are intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities
stretched too thin to avoid strategic surprise?”
Can they provide adequate indications and warnings?”
“And, if they do, will the policy makers and decision makers, be smart
enough to act upon it?” Do we
know enough about the terrorist threat to use our nuclear capabilities to deter
terrorists?” “How do you deter
a non-state actor who has no return address?”
How do you deter someone whose reward is in the afterlife?”
“Are intelligence resources focused on the right threats?”
“Is the greater danger of proliferation one of nuclear weapons, or of
raw nuclear materials, or scientists with nuclear warhead design knowledge?”
This
area was addressed by a keynote speaker and four panelists, who addressed
strategic intelligence capabilities and needs into the 21st Century,
strategic warning and deterrence, foreign missile development and ballistic
missile threats to the United States through 2015, shaping the forces:
the challenge for national reconnaissance, and intelligence, a view from
Capital Hill. The consensus was
that indeed the surveillance, reconnaissance, and particularly the downstream
analysis and processing of intelligence are stretched.
There was also agreement that intelligence has become more challenging
from the perspective that penetration is more difficult.
Sources and methods that worked in the past have been compromised.
And that we no longer have an information monopoly, that our adversaries
have access to high tech information systems, as well.
Deterrence
is psychological. As was highlighted
earlier in the report, in introducing one of the speakers addressing the
intelligence aspects of D4,
with the exception of “defend”, “deter, dissuade, and deny”, are all
very psychological. Intelligence
assists you to have some understanding of what your opponent thinks about you
and of the actions you’re going to take if you’re going to deter, deny, or
dissuade. You have to have
information on the targets. You
also have to have an idea of what effect you will have if you hit your target,
upon the people whom you want to influence.
Deterrence may or may not work, depending upon whether people wish to be
deterred. So the challenge is
assisting them in reaching that conclusion.
Intelligence
overview.
One speaker made the following observations:
One, the threat environment can be characterized by diverse, complex
issues, and shifting priorities, presenting a tougher environment for both
collection and analysis. Two, the
revolution in information technology and telecommunications has fundamentally
transformed the world, intelligence services and their environment, and the
customer’s access to and use of information. Three, the intelligence business
fundamentally relies on the talent, and expertise of its workforce.
Intelligence today needs specialized expertise in many disciplines, and
from both the private and public sectors.
Global
coverage.
Today, global coverage means the responsibility to assess a wide range of
complex threats throughout the world, each on its own merit.
Terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics, and
regional conflicts of all sorts, as well as political, social, and economic
problems in failed states, etc., are also potential threats.
Past
and future are colliding. We live in a moment when
the past and the future are colliding. There is increased availability of
sophisticated technology. We’re
losing our monopoly on the information game.
Our adversaries also have improved access to information and technology.
The ease and speed in which it can be applied by those hostile to the
United States is incredible. Terrorists,
insurgents, and others who have hundreds of years of history fueling their
causes, now use laptop computers, sophisticated encryption, and weaponry that
their predecessors could not even imagine.
Role
of intelligence. Part of the role of
intelligence is to use information and strategic warning to protect U.S.
interests, and ensure the country’s security.
In addition to military and security affairs, trade, investment, and
technology issues increasingly shape the international agenda, and challenge our
understanding of how the world works, and what we must do to secure a strong
U.S. role.
WMD
proliferation.
The key national security challenges are:
Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, increasing the
vulnerability of the U.S. to threats from states and non-state actors, and whose
weapons arsenals will be dramatically smaller, less reliable, and less accurate.
The proliferation of non-state actors, including ethnic, tribal and
religious groups, criminal and terrorist gangs, and even powerful individuals,
such as Osama Bin Laden, who are independent of state financial or technical
support.
Russia
in turmoil.
Russia is already in the throes of a succession struggle.
The success or failure of economic reforms and integration into world
economy is yet to be told, and there is popular frustration with economic
reforms. Endemic corruption and
organized crime could pave way for authoritarian rule.
Russia not only poses a direct threat, but its proliferation activities
are perhaps even more of a threat. Depending
on how things go, Russia could prove to be a spoiler, a destabilizer, or a
stabilizer.
China. China will continue to develop capabilities to strike the
United States. It poses a threat
through its aggressive efforts to acquire weapons technologies. It will prove to be a formidable economic competitor.
And its political conflict with Taiwan represents a potentially serious
source of military conflict.
North
Korea.
The North Korean regime is bankrupt.
It relies on international assistance to feed its people, and its
economic situation continues to deteriorate.
We should anticipate a sharpening of rhetoric about their right to
develop missiles and test missiles, and they are likely to sell missiles and
technology to others.
Middle
East.
The Middle East has multiple problems.
It is experiencing the second highest population growth rate in the world
behind Africa, which means it has a young and restive population.
We’re on the brink of succession changes in several countries, and have
already seen leadership changes in Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain, which have gone
unchallenged. We could see power
struggles in some of the upcoming leadership changes, or we could see
progressive reform. The peace
process between Israel and the Palestinians and with its other neighbors is
ongoing, but remains a source of frustration and conflict. Islam is being used as a tool of political extremism in many
areas.
Iran. There is an intellectual and political struggle between
students yearning for increased press and social freedoms versus the
conservative protectors of their Islamic revolution.
It is an ongoing struggle, and no one knows yet how it will turn out.
Globalization
of world economy. On balance economic
globalization will be a force for stability.
Openness
versus secrecy. We
must safeguard sensitive information, sources and methods, while increasingly
sharing information with regional CINCs and others.
Providing unclassified reports on our intelligence findings helps
decision-makers make better-informed decisions, keeps the public better
informed, and undercuts those who would leak sensitive information.
We need collectors and analysts who’re steeped in the cultures of the
world, and who can explain in a cultural context the motivations and intentions
of those in whom we have a strategic interest.
Warning. One speaker suggested that there are four basic building
blocks to success or to failed warning. They
are time, balance, penetration, and the combination of people and institutions.
Time. The best warning in the world fails if it doesn’t get to
the people charged with taking action, in time for them to take action.
Balance. You need balance between capabilities and intentions.
Sometimes an enemy’s intentions are not commensurate with his
capabilities, and vice versa. You can’t just look at one or the other.
Penetration. You need to penetrate the adversary in both depth and
breadth. Penetrating only the
leadership, or only the operators, won’t give you the full picture.
People
and institutions. People must be honest,
and have high levels of integrity, courage, and objectivity.
Honesty includes not ignoring uncomfortable truths.
Integrity. It’s much
easier to convince someone that they’re right than they’re wrong.
The burden of proof is on the analyst to tell you what they don’t know.
There’s also a burden on the customer to challenge the information
provided, and then to stand for answers which may be uncomfortable.
Intelligence institutions have to insulate themselves against the loss of
objectivity by ensuring there are contrarians in the organization. They cannot just recruit them, they must cultivate and
nurture them, insisting that they provide advice that doesn’t jive with the
common stream. They make enemies
and must be protected. Most people
want to be proven right, and not wrong.
You pay for what you get. You
have to pay for it. You don’t
want intelligence provided by the lowest bidder, the one who takes short cuts in
any of these areas, in the collection, and particularly in the analyses.
Robust
intelligence.
We need a more robust, capable, in-depth intelligence community,
motivated to take risk, to penetrate the right targets, gain the right access,
and arm our national leaders with the right information about their
adversaries’ intentions and capabilities. Adversaries need to be singled out and penetrated in breadth
and depth. The information needs to
be funneled back through a system that checks and rechecks, challenges
everything, and then provides it as rough and hard as it might be, to the
political and military decision makers, to do with it as they will. That’s the essence of good warning.
Continuous
improvements in collection and analysis. If
you’re standing still, everybody’s gaining on you.
You need to continually improve your most advanced collection systems
across the board. The corrosive
effect of having many of our sources and methods compromised over the years is
to slowly degrade our ability to understand what’s happening.
Forecasting
the ballistic missile threat. Forecasting
the missile development and ballistic missile threat to the U.S. through 2015 is
an inexact science at best. The threats are unknowable in much specificity.
However, the better our forecasting, the better our planning for
deterrence and defense. The threats will be less capable (fewer in number, shorter
range, and less accurate than the Soviets, for example), but they are
threatening in different ways. Acquiring
long-range ballistic missiles armed with a weapon of mass destruction will
enable weaker countries to deter, constrain, and harm the United States.
The missiles need not be deployed in large numbers.
Countries might judge they could threaten the U.S. with only a few
missiles. They need not be accurate or reliable, because their
strategic value is derived primarily from the threat of use, not from the near
certain outcome of such use. In
many ways, such weapons are strategic tools of deterrence and coercive diplomacy
aimed at the United States and our allies.
Wake-up
call.
The progress of countries toward acquiring longer-range ballistic
missiles has been dramatically demonstrated over the past 18 months.
North Korea’s Taepo Dong-1 launch, flight tests by Pakistan and Iran of
1,300 km range Ghauri and Shahab-3 missiles, India’s flight test of its 2,000
km range Agni II missile, and China’s first flight test of its 8,000 km range
DF-31 mobile ICBM indicate their commitment they have to develop these weapon
systems. These countries, and
likely Iraq, as well, will remain the main ballistic missile threat through
2015, as well.
Foreign
assistance.
Foreign assistance by these countries to others interested in developing
or purchasing ballistic missiles is significant.
Several countries are capable of using forward-based ships or other
platforms to launch short-range and medium-range land attack cruise missiles
against the United States. In
addition to reaching the continental U.S., these countries and others, plus
non-state actors, terrorist and extremist groups will pose significant threats
to U.S. and other western military forces deployed to various theaters.
Warning
focus.
With respect to imagery, the main focus of warning during the Cold War
was strategic warning at the highest levels of government.
In today’s environment the customer focus has broadened to include
real-time information to a greater variety of users.
Regional CINCs, the diplomatic community, non-government organizations,
scientific, public and commercial interest, all need detailed and global
information. The intelligence
community no longer has a monopoly on imagery, but competes with the commercial
world. It’s goal today is to
provide current, relevant and detailed information to its prime customers (which
they can’t get through commercial sources), across the full spectrum of peace,
crisis and conflict, and to invest in meeting tomorrow’s challenges.
Lack
of centralized management of the intelligence community, and chronic
shortcomings in analysis. One speaker suggested
that two fundamental shortcomings in our intelligence capabilities were lack of
centralized management of the intelligence community, and the chronic imbalance
between collection and downstream processing, analysis, and dissemination.
On the other hand, he felt that the product of the clandestine collector
was better today than ten years ago. However
because of severe resource constraints, they’re too narrowly focused for
today’s ever more complicated and dynamic environment.
Panel
III: Contributions of Defense
Community to D4. The panel was asked to address the following questions: “Is
a national missile defense affordable and technologically feasible?”
“Can the defense ever stay abreast of the offense?”
“And if so, how do you properly integrate offense and defense?”
“Does our intent to field a national missile defense with a focused
regional footprint destabilize our relationship with Russia?”
“And if we deploy a national missile defense as a component of a sound
denial and defense strategy, what implications does that have for our allies and
‘extended deterrence’?” Won’t they rightly expect ‘extended defense’, as
well?”
The
defensive contributions to D4
were addressed by a keynote speech on U.S. defense policy and missile defense;
and by panelists addressing national and theater missile defenses as components
of a new strategic deterrent; the limits of defense; regional operations,
defenses and deterrence; and allies and defense. The questions raised above, were generally addressed by the
panel members, as highlighted below. However,
given the lack of unanimity in their presentations, however, suggests some areas
for further study and debate.
Asymmetric
threat.
Ballistic missile defense is now part of U.S. defense posture, which it
wasn’t ten years ago, when we thought nonproliferation was the answer.
Today, rogues are the threat. Missiles
and missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction are a rogue enemy’s weapon
of choice, and constitutes the classic asymmetric threat.
Fielding
missile defenses. The U.S. has a pretty
good idea of the programs and systems it plans to field, and will need to
maintain a mix of offensive and defensive systems for the indefinite future.
We will need flexible, capable, survivable strategic nuclear forces to
deter the major nuclear powers should their leadership go wrong, and forward
deployed, sub-strategic nuclear forces, together with overwhelming conventional
capability, with force multipliers of strategic and tactical intelligence.
Theater
missile defenses. In the area of
shortcomings, we haven’t done enough with our allies in the area of theater
missile defenses for the tactical warfight, but especially in defending allied
territory. The eastern most states of the NATO Alliance are today within range
of rogue missiles. NATO overall was
in a state of denial on the ballistic missile threat, and the first time that
Iran or Iraq demonstrates missiles with ranges capable of hitting North Central
Europe, then the Allies will rush to us for help.
Europe needs a national missile defense, and the U.S. needs radars and
other sensors on allied soil to develop our own national missile defense.
From
the Allies’ perspective, past efforts by the U.S. to develop its own national missile defense
system, as well as theater missile defense systems in cooperation with the
allies, have been marred by a lack of focus, a comprehensive and coherent
policy, poor credibility, false starts, and lack of follow-through.
U.S.
lacks credibility with Allies. The
solution is twofold: The U.S. needs
to stick with its own program, that we won’t have credibility with anybody
unless we demonstrate that we can carry through a program. And we haven’t done that yet.
Secondly, we have to be able to demonstrate that the programs we carry
through are the programs we initially said we were going to carry through.
If we keep chopping and changing, redefining, scaling down, simply saying
some things while Congress says other things, we’re not going to get anywhere
with our allies. The allies are
looking to see how serious we are about ourselves.
To the extent that we are, they might begin to take themselves seriously
about themselves. To the extent
that we’re not, we’ll be talking about this same subject in 15 years.
If the U.S. goes its own way, the allies would follow.
Case
studies and gaming initiatives. One
speaker spoke to a number of case studies and extensive gaming initiatives
undertaken by the National Defense University to try to improve our
understanding of the deterrent role that our own nuclear weapons can play in
today’s security environment. They’ve
drawn five principal conclusions from these efforts:
First, that deterring nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC ) armed
regional or rogue adversaries is much more complex, and much more likely to fail
than deterrence as we knew it in the past. Second, that given the growing proliferation threat, both to
U.S. forces abroad, as well as to the American homeland, and given the
potentially horrendous consequences of a deterrence failure, that deterrence
must remain the first line of defense in our national security strategy.
Third, that although not adequate by itself, the threat of retaliation,
the threat of punishment, remains central to the deterrence of both the initial
use of NBC weapons, as well as follow-on use by rogue states.
Fourth, a number of factors are working to undercut regional deterrence
as a concept, and the very utility of thinking about conflicts confined to a
foreign theater, e.g., increasingly longer range of foreign ballistic missiles,
and the potential of terrorist-type of attacks on U.S. cities.
And fifth, we may be losing our already limited expertise in
understanding the complexities of deterrence in today’s world.
Deterrence requires us to pay attention to the changing nature of the
threat, that we understand the nature off the deterrent relationship with a
variety of potential threats, and not just from a military point of view, but
the civilian side of the national security community, commerce, trade, and
others. Further study, gaming,
training, and exercises need to be undertaken to further our understanding and
preparation for deterring and/or countering the threat.
Limits
of defense. We find ourselves in a
bind today, because we separate our thinking about offense and defense.
To be on the defense, you’re responding and waiting.
And a defensive spirit can weaken you if it’s allowed to dominate.
During the Cold War we led ourselves into an era of assured deterrence,
or mutually assured deterrence, codified in law and in arms control agreements.
We also thought at the time, that we couldn’t have an effective
ballistic missile defense that would be cost effective at the margins, given the
overwhelming numbers of ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons.
Today, it’s feasible to think about a ballistic missile defense, and to
integrate our thinking along a continuum of offense – transition – defense.
Distribution
of risk.
We need to think about the distribution of risk, amongst our strategic
capabilities, our offensive and defensive forces, intelligence, and diplomatic
efforts. Our diplomatic efforts are
not just in arms control, but in the manner in which we go about establishing
our relationships with great powers, and small. The small powers are emerging
with interesting, and heretofore un-thought of economic, political and military
capabilities.
Costs
of missile defenses. While one speaker asked
the question of whether it was worth spending $40 or $50 billion on ballistic
missile defenses over the next decade or so, he suggested that the cost issue
should be preceded by a set of different questions, that is, “How serious are
those who are pursuing ballistic missile capabilities?
And, So what? For what purposes are they pursuing ballistic missiles and
weapons of mass destruction? Perhaps
it is to increase their strategic autonomy, giving themselves the freedom to
act, and imposing upon us the requirement to conform our actions to theirs,
rather than the reverse?”
Specific
threats.
Iran, as a potential threat to Israel; India; Pakistan with internal
political problems which could make it a failed state, and the “North Korea of
South Asia”; and Iraq, which has managed to continue an ambitious weapons
program despite an intrusive inspection program.
Confused
foreign policy objectives. He
suggested that their ability to do us and others harm is increasing over time,
and that we’ve tied ourselves in knots with our nonproliferation policies,
extended deterrence with our allies, and how we are going to deal with sanctions
regimes. We’ve gotten ourselves
terribly confused with respect to our broad foreign policy objectives, as a
consequence of the development of autonomy by regional powers, and confused as
well with respect to our military responses to them. And because we are confused, so our allies, and even our
potential adversaries.
ABM
Treaty, cornerstone of strategic stability. The
missile defense architecture, the contrived ground-based architecture, is based
on the political desire to maintain the ABM Treaty as the cornerstone of
strategic stability, that without the ABM Treaty, we wouldn’t be pursuing
these types of defenses. We could
have a much more effective and affordable ballistic missile defense, which is
sea-based, and space-based. The
defenses we are pursuing are dead-end defenses, and one site in Alaska won’t
provide even a minimal defensive posture. Why
spend money on something, which doesn’t provide protection?
Mutual
assured destruction. At the core of the ABM
Treaty is the notion of mutually assured destruction.
It’s not a partnership. And
therefore, we’re perpetuating the mutual distrust and suspicion of the Cold
War. And it would seem that we’re
more stubborn than the Russians in trying to think through a new relationship.
Passive
defenses.
Gas masks, MOPP suits, training to operate in a chemical environment,
anthrax vaccinations, training of first responders in responding to massive
casualties which are inflicted by biological weapons on the part of an
adversary, and other passive defense measures all have deterrent value, as well.
Congressional
Perspectives on Strategic Capabilities.
Islamic
fundamentalism.
One of our problems was a cultural clash between Islamic Fundamentalism
and western democratic values, and that the two cultures look at the world in
fundamentally different ways. The
two cultures were fundamentally different in the way they dealt with resources,
as well.
Globalization.
We have a powerful ally in globalization. Globalization is rapidly transforming our experience and the
environment in which we operate. It
is also critical to understanding the whole question of strategic threat,
strategic advantage, and what is really occurring in the world.
As our economies become more inter-dependent, it becomes more clearly in
the interest of countries to avoid confrontation over issues like proliferation.
National
missile defense. A national missile
defense relying on the “Alaska option” is ill advised.
It lacks a “shoot-look-shoot” capability if an attack were launched
on the eastern U.S., and a second site was needed in North Dakota.
Panel
IV: Diplomacy and Arms Control
Contributions to D4. The panel was asked to address the following questions:
“What should be the focus of future arms control initiatives?”
“How do we address the growing asymmetries in the U.S. and Russian
stockpiles, the asymmetry in tactical or non-strategic nuclear weapons, the
asymmetry in warhead production capacity?”
“Should arms control be concerned with the potential impact of
agreements on the non-nuclear capability of our strategic forces, such as our
long-range bombers or the Navy’s concept of an SSG?”
Is there a point at which lower numbers of nuclear weapons start to
become destabilizing?” Is the START framework, the framework of accounting for
strategic launchers, rather than accounting for actual warheads, fatally flawed
at some level?” “If so, how
should the arms control approach be transformed?”
“Isn’t a world with nuclear weapons and no major war, better than one
with major war and no nuclear weapons?”
The subject was discussed by a panel of four speakers,
with divergent viewpoints both about the problems and the solutions associated
with diplomacy and arms control. They
addressed two issues, the need for a new kind of diplomatic effort, and the need
for a new model for arms control.
A broad perspective. The chairman of the panel suggested that the panel look
broadly at the topics, and at the importance of integrating dissuasion, denial,
diplomacy, development and disarmament. In
addition to the four “Ds”, specified in the conference announcement, he felt
that development and disarmament were integral to conceptualizing deterrence and
defense from a diplomatic perspective. He asked the panelists to address themselves to a broader
context of dealing with geo-strategic aspects, arms control and disarmament
aspects, the political aspects, and in essence, the important role of nuclear
deterrence in shaping the international security architecture. He thought the discussion should include this broader range
of issues that have to do with diplomacy, with shaping the future of the world,
and the important arms control and disarmament aspects of diplomacy and arms
control.
New perspective.
One speaker sought to articulate a new perspective on the diplomatic and
military framework for dealing with weapons of mass destruction.
He suggested that the confrontation with the Soviet Union (during the
Cold War) had been a direct threat to the United States, not only militarily,
but had threatened to isolate us and our values, that it was a political and
psychological threat to our core values, and to our basic beliefs about how
society should be organized. He felt that had changed today, and that Russia is more a
proliferation threat, than a threat of direct aggression, and that the same is
true of China. There are other
nations with historical scores to settle with the United States, at least in
their minds, or with regional ambitions that we thwart by our protection of
their local opponents, and are developing capabilities to threaten the U.S.
Finally, advances in technology have empowered sub-national groups or
individuals, potentially to threaten the U.S. homeland.
Countering this threat needs to be the highest priority in American
foreign policy.
He felt we needed to consider weapons of mass
destruction together. Having a
policy on nuclear weapons, and other policies vis-à-vis biological or chemical
weapons doesn’t make sense, that if we countered nuclear weapons, but failed
to counter biological weapons, that we’ve lost.
Changing political realities.
We need to alter the role of weapons of mass destruction in our relations
with Russia and China as a first step, to reflect the changing nature of the
political relationships between us. He
suggested that the diplomatic and arms control framework, and military posture
of mutual assured destruction is out of sync with the political realities of
today.
Deterrence, a strategy of weakness.
Deterrence is too uncertain to depend upon.
Deterrence is not something you choose.
It’s a strategy of weakness. It’s
inherently uncertain, because you have to affect the decision of one individual
in some future crisis, and you don’t know what he or she sees.
You don’t know what their values are, or whether they are sane or even
sober.
Resolve political conflicts.
The best way to prevent proliferation, and reduce threats from weapons of
mass destruction, is to resolve political conflicts, which is the source of
these kinds of problems. We need to
cooperate better with other nations in intelligence and police work, and develop
cooperative measures to safeguard weapons of mass destruction, their components,
and delivery systems.
Preemption and counterproliferation.
We need preemptive capabilities with conventional forces, and
counterproliferation strategies. We
need passive defenses, including training for first responders.
And we need to deploy national and theater missile defenses.
And we need to give greater priority to multi-national diplomacy, to
further delegitimate, reduce, and eventually eliminate all weapons of mass
destruction.
Robust offensive
forces for deterrence stands logic on its head.
The current U.S. approach to nuclear issues, with its emphasis on
maintaining robust offensive forces for deterrence, and a prohibition on
significant defenses, stands logic on its head.
It encourages the deployment of deadly weapons, and prevents the creation
of effective means of defending against them.
He felt that our current security policy is a historic aberration, that
we deterred because we could not defend. It
wasn’t a choice, but necessity that was the mother of this policy. Now we have a chance to restore a more coherent balance
between offense and defense. The
demise of the Soviet Union, and advances in defensive technologies offer the
choice of a new path. There’s an
opportunity to move back to a more logical posture, one which seeks a more
stable and secure posture for the U.S., and indeed the world, in which there are
fewer weapons of mass destruction, under writing a stable deterrence and
effective defensives for ourselves and our interests.
Compellingly, it’s this type of world, which in the distant future
perhaps, can lead to the ultimate elimination of all weapons of mass destruction
from international policy.
New arms control
model.
Another speaker suggested that we do in fact need a new arms control
model, if we need arms control at all. He
felt that arms control throughout history has been harmful at worst, and
irrelevant at best, that it was a product of the Cold War, an historical
aberration, and a response to perceived realities of an intractable political
conflict in a nuclear missile age against which there were no defenses.
Arms control
assumptions during the Cold War.
He felt there were six assumptions underlying arms control during the
Cold War: an intractable conflict, horrific weapons against which there
was no defense, some degree of rationality, a bipolar world, danger of
miscalculation, and need and means to somehow stabilize the situation.
Verification became a major issue, founded on this intractable political
problem and mistrust. We looked for a technical solution to a political problem.
Arms control was an attempt to manage the situation.
Arms control is
folly.
Arms control is most likely when it’s least needed.
Arms control today is folly, because nuclear weapons, perhaps of new
design, will be essential to American security for the foreseeable future.
START talks dominate our agenda with Russia, and it’s doing a lot of
damage. Russia is sinking,
politically and economically. It’s
going to be a disaster, and we're talking arms control?
It was suggested that it didn’t make sense to be talking to Russia
about reducing the number of warheads to 3,500 by 2007, when we didn’t know
what Russia would look like on January 7, 2000.
We need to do something, do it right, and it’s gong to be very
difficult.
Quoting from a recent report, on the future of American security, the speaker stated, “Threats to American security will be more diffuse