What Are Nuclear Weapons For? Sidney Drell, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor of Theoretical Physics (emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Stanford University.

The role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense planning needs a fresh look. The United States and Russia, who possess some 95% of the world’s nuclear weapons, have now officially adopted a policy of cooperation against the grave new threats, faced by both nations, of terrorists and unstable or irresponsible governments acquiring nuclear weapons. This replaces the former adversarial relationship of nuclear deterrence based on mutual assured destruction. As stated in the Joint Declaration of Presidents Bush and Putin of November 13, 2001: “The United States and Russia have overcome the legacy of the Cold War. Neither country regards the other as an enemy or threat.” What then are the anticipated missions and targets for the thousands of nuclear warheads remaining in their arsenals?