Elbridge Colby, Under Secretary of War for Policy, has confirmed on the record that the Pentagon is re-examining U.S. nuclear employment guidance in order to give the President what he calls “rational nuclear options” in a regional conflict with Russia or China, The Washington Times reported on Aug. 18.
“Employment guidance” means the decisions of what would get targeted, under what circumstances, and on whose authority. It is the answer to the question of when the United States would use a nuclear weapon.
The Department has chosen to conduct what it calls a “nuclear strategy review” rather than a Nuclear Posture Review. The difference: A Nuclear Posture Review is delivered to Congress and published in unclassified form. A “strategy review” carries no such requirement. And Colby has said the result will not be released to the public. His Aug. 5 address on the subject, to the U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium, was likewise not made public.
