A Dark Sun Never Unleashed
Abstract
The nuclear enterprise had been in the limelight, and its reinvigoration has been the number one priority for the Department of Defense and Air Force for the last decade. There has been a disconnect between senior leaders and the nuclear enterprise as a whole over the past 25 years. America's place in the world and global leadership in a new American Century is being torn between policy on nuclear weapons and broader strategic and foreign policy. The enduring vision that America can deepen and strengthen its uncontested global leadership and the growing realization that the balance of global power is shifting towards other countries pulls America's nuclear policy in two different directions. These are: advocating elimination of nuclear weapons in a world under non-threatening American primacy on the one hand, and on the other relying more heavily on its nuclear arsenal to sustain primacy as its edge in other elements of national power erodes. Senior civilian and Air Force leaders must navigate the disconnects and contradictions of policies and strategies and manage the media to build a nuclear enterprise tailored to current and future needs. In the end; nuclear weapons remain what they have always been instruments of international policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1083719
Entities
People
- Brad L. Haynes
Organizations
- Air University