Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century.

• Author: Jones, David T.

Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century

By Robert M. Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense

Text: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/1028_transcrip_gates_checked.pdf

On October 28, immediately before the presidential election, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates addressed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss U.S. nuclear weapons policy and deterrence. Gates spoke following an introduction that emphasized Carnegie's recent publications directed toward further limiting/eliminating nuclear weapons.

After paying tribute to Carnegie's origins at the beginning of the twentieth century (and noting--presumably deliberately--that the United States had then been suppressing an insurgency in the Philippines at the cost of 4,200 American lives), Gates observed that Carnegie had funded a "Peace Palace" in Geneva in August 1913, and that a year later, the world plunged into an abyss from which it really did not emerge for 75 years. Gates' point? " ... One of the horrid lessons of history is that it has a way of defying even the best of intentions, especially on matters of war and peace."

Gates then laid down the blunt reality of nuclear weapons. Regardless of an abstract desire of the most senior U.S. leadership to eliminate them, we must retain these weapons, albeit at reduced levels, as long as others do. Nor, Gates noted, was nuclear proliferation inevitable as states had been directly encouraged to eliminate (Libya) or abandon (South Africa) nuclear weapons programs.

After reviewing...