Nuclear Strategy & World Order - Hertog Foundation

Are we entering a dangerous new age of nuclear proliferation? A world in which the use of nuclear weapons is truly imaginable or even likely? And do the democratic nations of the world have a strategy to preserve order and protect themselves in this brave new world?

This one-week course will explore the ways nuclear weapons transformed the world we inhabit today, the effects of nuclear weapons on the conduct of international politics, and how policymakers have dealt with the issue of the shifting strategic balance, especially the loss of the American nuclear monopoly. Through background readings and discussion of case studies, students will gain the historical, strategic, and theoretical background necessary to allow them to understand and assess the key debates and policies regarding nuclear weapons that the United States will likely face in the coming decades.

The course will consist of two sessions per day. Each morning, students will participate in a seminar led by former under-secretary of defense Eric Edelman, who helped manage the nuclear portfolio for the George W. Bush administration. Each afternoon, they will hear from a leading expert or practitioner on the real strategic, moral, and political challenges of the current nuclear era. Past guest speakers have included Hal Brands (AEI), Matthew Kroenig (Georgetown), and Ray Takeyh (Council on Foreign Relations).

Image courtesy GlobalSecurity.org

Eric Edelman on today's global threats

This one-week course will take place in Washington, DC. It is a full-time commitment for Monday–Friday, with required sessions in the morning, afternoon, and some evenings.

Faculty

Eric S. Edelman

Eric S. Edelman is a Counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and the Roger Hertog Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins. He has served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey.

Eric S. Edelman

Ambassador Eric S. Edelman retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service on May 1, 2009. He is currently a Roger Hertog Practitioner in Residence at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Edelman has served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House where he led organizations providing analysis, strategy, policy development, security services, trade advocacy, public outreach, citizen services and congressional relations. As the undersecretary of defense for policy (August, 2005-January 2009) he oversaw strategy development as DoD’s senior policy official with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counter-proliferation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls.

He served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and Bush Administrations and was principal deputy assistant to the vice president for national security affairs. In other assignment he has been chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, special assistant to Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Robert Kimmitt and special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz. His other assignments include the State Department Operations Center, Prague, Moscow, and Tel Aviv, where he was a member of the U.S. Middle East delegation to the West Bank/Gaza autonomy talks.

He has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. In January 2011 he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French Government.

He received a bachelor’s degree in history and government from Cornell University and a doctorate in U.S. diplomatic history from Yale University.

Download the Full Syllabus

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Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is deterrence, and what is necessary for it to work?
  2. How much is enough for effective deterrence?
  3. What is extended deterrence, and how do alliance commitments complicate credible deterrent threats?
  4. How does the “Second Nuclear Age” differ from the first? What new (and old) challenges does the U.S. face?
  5. Is the current U.S. approach to extended nuclear deterrence likely to remain adequate? If not, how might the U.S. adapt its extended nuclear deterrence posture to preserve stability across the regions that concern it most?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does the U.S. have a strong national interest in preventing nuclear proliferation?
  2. Does nuclear proliferation produce stability or instability in the international system?
  3. What is the relationship between proliferation and arms control?
  4. Should states try to eliminate nuclear weapons or control their spread? What would be the best strategy to prevent nuclear proliferation?

Readings:

 

Recommended Reading:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the distinctive security challenges of nuclear multipolarity?
  2. What does “strategic stability” mean in a multipolar nuclear world?
  3. Can a state deter, and if necessary fight, nuclear wars with multiple nuclear-armed adversaries?
  4. How and why do nuclear weapons spread? What strategies can we expect emerging nuclear powers to adopt (Iran, North Korea)?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the implications of new technologies—e.g., precision and hypersonic weapons, antimissile defense, cyber-attack capabilities, and artificial intelligence—for nuclear deterrence?
  2. Is nuclear deterrence more stable if human beings are in or out of the decision-making loop?
  3. What is “limited” nuclear war? What are the different scenarios under which a limited nuclear strike might occur?
  4. What can the U.S. do to deter limited nuclear attacks by adversaries?

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Frederick W. Kagan

Frederick W. Kagan is a Senior Instructor with the Hertog War Studies Program at the Institute for the Study of War. The author of the 2007 report “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq,” he is one of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy in Iraq. He is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project.

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Jakub J. Grygiel

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