U.S. Nuclear Policy 

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FAS Experts:

FAS President Charles D. Ferguson specializes in arms control, and nuclear and radiological terrorism. While at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Ferguson served as the project director of the Independent Task Force on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy, chaired by William J. Perry and Brent Snowcroft.   

Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project, is the co-author of the bi-monthly Nuclear Notebook column in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the World Nuclear Forces overview in the SIPRI Yearbook. He is an expert on the status of nuclear forces and nuclear policy worldwide. 

FAS Reports:

2009 From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence

2008 Toward True Security

2007 The Stockpile Stewardship Program

2006 Chinese Nuclear Forces and U.S. Nuclear War Planning

2005 Missions for Nuclear Weapons After the Cold War

History:

2010 Nuclear Posture Review
 

1994 Nuclear Posture Review  

FAQ:

Key Facts of new START Treaty

Speeches:

"It is one of the highest priorities of the Obama administration to pursue an agenda to reduce the threat posed by the deadliest weapons the world has ever known.  President Obama set that forth in his speech at Prague last year.  And today, he and President Medvedev reached an agreement to make significant and verifiable reductions in our nuclear arsenals."

"Forty years ago today, in the midst of a Cold War, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force, becoming the cornerstone of the world’s efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.  Today, the threat of global nuclear war has passed, but the danger of nuclear proliferation endures, making the basic bargain of the NPT more important than ever: nations with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, nations without nuclear weapons will forsake them, and all nations have an “inalienable right” to peaceful nuclear energy."

From President Obama's remarks at the United Nations Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament on September 24, 2009:

"Although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the Cold War, we now face proliferation of a scope and complexity that demands new strategies and new approaches.  Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or Moscow; Tokyo or Beijing; London or Paris -- could kill hundreds of thousands of people.  And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, and our very way of life.

...All nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy; that nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to move toward disarmament; and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them.

The world must stand together.  And we must demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced.

We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons.  We know there are plenty of cynics, and that there will be setbacks to prove their point.  But there will also be days like today that push us forward -- days that tell a different story.  It is the story of a world that understands that no difference or division is worth destroying all that we have built and all that we love.  It is a recognition that can bring people of different nationalities and ethnicities and ideologies together.  In my own country, it has brought Democrats and Republican leaders together -- leaders like George Shultz, Bill Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn, who are with us here today.  And it was a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, who once articulated the goal we now seek in the starkest of terms.  I quote:

"A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.  And no matter how great the obstacles may seem, we must never stop our efforts to reduce the weapons of war.  We must never stop until all -- we must never stop at all until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the Earth."

From President Obama's speech on April 5, 2009:

"The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War... I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
To reduce our warheads and stockpiles, we will negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Russians this year. To achieve a global ban on nuclear testing, my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Together we will strengthen theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a basis for cooperation."