U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy: Considering "No First Use"

Abstract

On April 15, 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Adam Smith introduced legislation that declared, "It is the policy of the United States to not use nuclear weapons first." Other Members of Congress are divided on this issue. Senator Dianne Feinstein has argued that the only moral use for U.S. nuclear weapons is as a deterrent to their use. Senator Deb Fischer, on the other hand, has said that the proposal "betrays a naive and disturbed world view. President Biden has spoken, in the past, about his support for a "sole purpose" policy for nuclear weapons, which some see as similar to "no first use," but the President has not yet taken steps to review or alter U.S. nuclear policy.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 16, 2021
Accession Number
AD1131663

Entities

People

  • Amy F. Woolf

Organizations

  • Congressional Research Service

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Arms Control
  • Arms Control Treaties
  • Asia
  • Biological Weapons
  • Cold War
  • Congress
  • Deterrence
  • Governments
  • Law
  • National Security
  • North Korea
  • Northeast Asia
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Security
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Ussr
  • Weapons

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Military History
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security
  • Strategic Security Studies