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| About CDI > Staff > Bruce Blair > Selected Publications |
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For the Record The Washington Post, June 3, 1998 By Bruce G. Blair From Bruce Blair's review essay "Loose Cannon" in the summer issue of the National Interest: Whereas the principal aim of American nuclear policy during the Cold War was to deter a strong and aggressive Soviet Union, the nuclear risks we face today stem from Russian weakness. Russia's conventional forces have declined to the point that they can no longer protect Russian territory, and into this vacuum has rushed a growing reliance on nuclear weapons -- including the prospect of their first use early in any serious conventional conflict. To make matters worse, the nuclear forces themselves have become vulnerable. Budget sources prevent Russia from dispersing its weapons into the sanctuaries of the oceans and forests to the point that, in their present configuration, its strategic forces could not ride out a U.S. attack. Consequently, Russia today faces far stronger pressures to "use or lose" its nuclear arsenal than at any time since the early 1960s. While Russia relies more on nuclear weapons and on launching them on warning, its nuclear control regime is steadily deteriorating in physical, organizational and human terms. Soviet designers built an impressive command system to ensure strict central controls over nuclear weapons -- a core value of Soviet political and military culture -- but they understandably overlooked a host of dangers that developed after the Soviet empire dissolved. Copyright The Washington Post
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