US & Deterrence

When Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held their latest phone call a week ago, the leaders of the two countries with the world’s largest nuclear arsenals agreed on “the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons”. The point of accord between Moscow and Washington was in many ways the continuation of a stance that has endured for the best part of 80 years – namely, that it is in the interests America, Russia and their respective allies to keep the global “club” of nuclear-armed nations as small as possible. In order to do so, the United States has extended its so-called “nuclear umbrella” – a promise of nuclear protection in return for allies not seeking atomic weapons themselves – to some 30 countries. But it is a post-war consensus that is increasingly under strain. Indeed, in his efforts to make his “America First” policy a geopolitical reality, there is growing evidence that Trump is flirting dangerously with starting a new nuclear arms race. From Berlin to Seoul, alarm bells are ringing that the United States, the lynch stone of the Western security apparatus in Europe and Asia for three generations, is no longer a reliable guarantor of the ultimate deterrence offered by nuclear weapons.