US nuclear strategy: from deterrence to actual combat

Washington Post revealed on September 11 that the US Defense Department has completed its revised draft of the "Joint Nuclear Combat Action Principle", which now awaits formal approval. The revised draft stipulates that US army can use nuclear weapons to launch "preemptive" attacks on the enemy. But what effectiveness will such adjustment have on preventing the proliferation of weapons of massive destruction (WMD) and on attacking terrorism remains unknown.

Since the emergence of nuclear weapons, the United States has been the only country that used atom bombs twice in Japan after World War II, which caused the deaths of over 200,000 people. Nuclear weaponry has too big a destructive power, too serious aftereffect and a very strong flavor of "arms being lethal weapons". For this reason, humans have no longer used it in the ensuing 60 years. Although nuclear weaponry has been developed rapidly, it is kept in reserve and only plays a role of deterrence.

During the US-USSR Cold War period, in their nuclear strategy, both countries positioned nuclear arms as deterrent weapons for final decisive battle, and dared not rashly decide to use, thus the world maintains "peace amid terror".

After the "September 11" incident in 2001, the United States revised the "National Security Strategy". Its nuclear strategy began to go through a process of change from deterrence to actual combat, and revision of the "Action Principle" is an expression of the materialization and legalization of this strategic adjustment.

This adjustment lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, turning nuclear weapon in a strategic position to tactical weapon. This makes it possible for theater commander to propose the use of such weapons, thereby increasing the randomness in the use of nuclear weapons. Technically, the United States has intensified its effort for the development of "ground-drilling nuclear bomb" and other tactical nuclear weapons, thus providing technical conditions for the tactical application of nuclear weapons.

As is well known, nuclear threshold is like a "magic bottle", since once the "devil" is released from it, the party concerned won't be able to control it. On the one hand, the United States tries to control the proliferation of WMD; on the other hand, it lowers the threshold for the use of such weapons, giving people a kind of self-contradictory sense. Such strategic adjustment of the United States would give the world a sense of insecurity; some people think that doing so may contrarily stimulate the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The American nuclear strategic adjustment is, to a great extent, aimed at the current terrorist activities in the world. But a terrorist act is characterized by its concealment and dispersiveness, and using nuclear weapons to deal with terror activities is like using "cannon to bomb mosquitoes", making it hard to achieve anticipated results. Nuclear weapon itself has the characteristic of "jade and stone burned together", and random use of nuclear weapons would cause huge casualties to innocent civilians.

The purpose of US nuclear strategic adjustment is designed to maintain strategic nuclear deterrent power, while at the same time giving nuclear weapons a certain kind of tactical deterrent power and the function of usage in actual combat. But it is still uncertain whether such new strategy is workable to deal specifically with its target.

As mentioned above, nuclear weaponry has little effect on stopping terrorist activities. Its role of hindrance to nuclear proliferation and nuclear weapons is open to question. Because the agent of nuclear proliferation constitutes a country's sense of insecurity in international politics, while the American new nuclear strategy, to a great extent, would increase such sense of insecurity. US nuclear weapons based on actual combat would increase the danger of the occurrence of nuclear incidents.

It is reported that in the past 40 years, US nuclear weapons have witnessed the occurrence of over 300 extraordinary incidents, and the occurrence of incidents knows no limits in regard to time and place, so it also poses great danger to the United States per se.

US new nuclear strategy, in essence, reflects a kind of strategic perplexity of the United States in dealing with terrorism and the proliferation of WMD and other non-traditional security threats: Difficulty in determining the enemy, in mastering the technique for defeating the enemy, and the sharp contrast between its aggressive strategic intention and its implementing means featuring its ability falling short of its desire.

This article by senior editor Huang Qing of People's Daily is carried on the Global Times, September 14, and translated by People's Daily Online