The dangerous new Washington consensus for more nuclear weapons

Board Member Joe Cirincione on why the new Washington consensus for more nuclear weapons repeats the oldest strategic mistake of the nuclear age.

Eighty years ago, Manhattan Project scientists warned that bigger and better atomic bombs would not make the United States safe from sudden attack. They were ignored.

Today, a new Washington consensus spanning both parties is making the same mistake. Two former Biden administration defense officials are calling for more, different, and better nuclear capabilities to meet what they describe as a “Category 5 hurricane of nuclear threats.” The third nuclear build-up is already underway, at an estimated cost of $2 trillion and rising. At its core is a war-fighting doctrine that openly embraces the ability to fight and win a nuclear war as essential for national security. But what happens if we use them? How many would die? Would our nation survive? Cirincione warns that these views are now the dominant views in Washington, in both parties. Without a vibrant, persistent pushback, these policies will not only prevail in the current Trump administration but in future governments as well.

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