No. 223: President Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review

Author(s): Oliver Thränert
Editor(s): Benno Zogg
Series Editor(s): Christian Nünlist, Matthias Bieri
Series: CSS Analyses in Security Policy
Issue: 223
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich
Publication Year: 2018

Nuclear deterrence may remain the top priority set out by the Trump administration’s “Nuclear Posture Review”. However, this CSS analysis highlights that the administration’s nuclear policy has turned away from the Obama-era policy of reducing the salience of nuclear arms and renouncing new nuclear capability development. Further, as President Trump is dismissive of the concept of arms control, it argues that there is an increasing danger that the return of great-power rivalry with Russia and China could result in a nuclear arms race.

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Estimated Global Nuclear Warhead Inventories 1945-2017