Michael Levi of the Brookings Institute challenges the technical assumptions made by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board in their recent report, Future Strategic Strike Forces, which called for developing new low-yield nuclear weapons.
Michael Levi observes that threats of preemptive nuclear strikes against Iraq have alarmed the public and hurt America's image--and for no good reason: Tactical nuclear weapons have little if any military value.
Michael Levi argues that if the U.S. removes the threat of Saddam Hussein while leaving the rest of its nonproliferation policy unchanged, it will achieve only a marginal improvement in our security against nuclear terror.