Real Clear Defense
uclear Deterrence and America’s Missile Defense Program: Time for Change
America’s outdated nuclear deterrence policy is hindering the country’s missile defense program, constraining it to a “limited missile defense” strategy. Consequently, essential missile defense initiatives are overshadowed by competing security priorities, gradual improvements, and insufficient funding, leaving the United States vulnerable to advancing conventional and nuclear missile threats. By adhering to inadequate defense strategies and outdated deterrence doctrines, America is impairing its capacity to develop and deploy effective missile defense systems, putting the homeland at risk from escalating modern threats.
Nuclear Deterrence
The foundation of nuclear deterrence is based on mutually assured destruction (MAD). This principle posits that if one superpower were to launch a nuclear attack, it would trigger an overwhelming nuclear counterattack, resulting in the annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. Following World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the strategic purpose of war shifted. It became less about winning conflicts and more about preventing them. As the prominent American nuclear strategist Bernard Brodie stated in 1978, “From now on, [our military forces’] chief purpose must be to avert them [wars]. It can have almost no other useful purpose.”
