Missions for Nuclear Weapons after the Cold War  

28 January 2005 - Missions for Nuclear Weapons after the Cold War, FAS Occassional Paper No. 3, examines currently proposed nuclear missions and finds that the United States is witnessing the end of a long process of having nuclear weapons be displaced by advanced conventional alternatives. The most challenging nuclear mission is a holdover from the Cold War: to be able to carry out a disarming first strike against Russian central nuclear forces. Only if the US and Russia abandon this mission will meaningful reductions in the two largest arsenals be possible.