“Strengthening Checks on Presidential Nuclear Launch Authority”

New analysis by Bruce G. Blair, Ph.D.
Published by Arms Control Today
January/February 2018

-In a new article published in the forthcoming issue of ‎Arms Control Today, Bruce Blair, a member of the Princeton University research faculty, co-founder of the organization Global Zero, and a former Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile launch officer, provides an authoritative summary of current U.S. nuclear launch protocol and its dangerous liabilities. The article includes new information about the process, including who is involved and how a nuclear use order would be executed.

Blair also offers several possible reforms to the current protocol to provide the president with more warning and decision time and reduce the risks of faulty decision making.

“No single reform suffices,” writes Blair. “A combination of reforms is needed to reduce the risk.”

The reforms proposed by Blair include altering the current prompt-launch posture, adding more people to the chain of command, greater congressional involvement, and re-evaluating the legality of nuclear war plans.

Visit Arms Control Today at the link below for this analysis by Dr. Bruce G. Blair on options for reforming presidential nuclear launch authority.

"Strengthening Checks on Presidential Nuclear Launch Authority"

Bruce G. Blair, Ph.D., is Co-Founder of Global Zero, Research Scholar with the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University, and one of The Simons Foundation's Peace Leaders.