THE THREATS POSED BY RUSSIA AND CHINA REQUIRE CONTINUED POSSESSION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS Robert G. Joseph and John F. Reichart. The Case for Nuclear Deterrence Today Orbis, 00304387, Winter 1998, Vol. 42, Issue 1. The contrast is stark. While Americans wring their hands over the pros and cons of dramatic reductions in US. nuclear forces, and even debate whether or not to go to zero nuclear weapons, the Russians and Chinese are modernizing their own nuclear forces. In the case of China, this entails building new missiles and warheads, recently tested. In the case of Russia, whose conventional forces are in desperate condition, nuclear modernization includes not only new missiles but elaborate and extraordinarily hardened command and control facilities. Russian doctrine today places more emphasis on nuclear weapons than did Soviet doctrine, as evidenced by Moscow's reversal of its longstanding no-first use policy. The obvious point is that, given the inability to control or predict where these two states will be in five or ten years, it is essential to hedge against a reversal in relations. And the best hedge is to maintain a nuclear deterrent.
