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U.S. expert voices concern over Obama's move toward nuclear 'no-first use' doctrine

All News 02:11 July 30, 2016

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Yonhap) -- Adopting a nuclear "no-first use" policy would be a bad idea when the United States and its allies are struggling to deter big-state aggressors in Europe and Asia, an American security expert said.

Gordon Chang, an East Asia security expert, made the point in an article to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as the administration of President Barack Obama is reportedly trying to enunciate the "no-first use" doctrine to advance Obama's nuclear-free world vision in his final months in office.

"Unilateral changes of this sort should be made only in times of strategic stability. At this time, America and its treaty partners are already having difficulty deterring big-state aggressors in Europe and Asia, and may need their most destructive weaponry to maintain peace and stability in troubled regions," Chang said.

Advocates of "no-first use" accuse proponents of first use of being mired in a "Cold War mindset," the expert said, adding, "Today, unfortunately, resembles that multi-decade, global struggle in crucial respects."

"During the Cold War, big-power authoritarians threatened the international system, seizing territory and using armies to hold on to their new possessions. Now, China is grabbing specks in the South China Sea," he said.

"Moscow is also on the march. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismembered Georgia last decade and Ukraine this one, annexing Crimea in 2014. At the moment, his forces are occupying a large portion of the Ukrainian region of Donbass, which he ominously calls part of 'New Russia,'" Chang said.

Threatened by China and North Korea, Japan does not want to see a no-first-use doctrine, and neither does South Korea, he said.

"The moment when large states are redrawing their borders by force is not the time to try something different with America's weapons of last resort," he said.

Last week, Jonathan Pollack and Richard Bush, senior experts at the Brookings Institution, also voiced concern about the Obama administration's move, saying North Korea continues to enhance its weapons inventory and the means to deliver them.

Non-nuclear states living in the shadow of nuclear-armed adversaries have long relied on U.S. commitment to employ nuclear weapons should our allies be subject to aggression with conventional forces, while basing their own national security strategies on that pledge and foregoing indigenous development of nuclear weapons, they said.

"The Obama administration must therefore balance its clear desire to advance a non-nuclear legacy with Northeast Asia's inescapable realities. Enunciating a 'no first use' doctrine or a sole purpose commitment in the administration's waning months in office is a bridge too far," they said.

Obama has sought to make the initiative for building a nuclear-free world a key legacy of his presidency, launching the Nuclear Security Summit of world leaders aimed at reducing the stockpile of fissile material and keeping it out of the hands of terrorists.

The fourth and last Nuclear Security Summit was held in Washington earlier this year.

jschang@yna.co.kr
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