Nuclear Threat Initiative releases report on nuclear weapons use

The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) issued a report recommending steps to improve the decision-making process for nuclear weapons use.

The President and Nuclear Weapons: Authorities, Limits, and Process specifically looks at the state of domestic and international law related to the use of nuclear weapons. It also outlines the process and decision-making regarding nuclear use authority. The report is authored by NTI national security legal experts Mary DeRosa and Ashley Nicolas.

A companion analysis — the President and Nuclear Weapons: Implications of Sole Authority in Today’s World – explores ways to strengthen executive branch procedures related to the potential use of nuclear weapons. Further, it offers recommendations to improve procedures for consulting and briefing Congress.

“There is no more consequential decision for a president than ordering a nuclear strike,” the report’s authors Ernest Moniz and Sam Nunn said. “The procedures still in use today were designed for a different era. By favoring speed over consultation and deliberation, and by relying on the president as sole authority, the decision to launch a U.S. nuclear weapon is exclusively in the president’s hands.”

Moniz and Nunn, who are NTI co-chairs, also made suggestions regarding nuclear force structure, posture, and policy to reduce vulnerability to short-warning nuclear attacks.

“Such steps would provide greater confidence in the process by which a president might consider the use of nuclear weapons,” they write.