Report calls for changes to U.S. nuclear planning

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Federation of American Scientists, Ploughshares-funded organizations, released a report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning. The new joint report, From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence: A New Nuclear Policy on the Path toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, argues for abandoning the almost five-decade-long central mission for U.S. nuclear forces. "President Obama has already taken the first step by stating America's commitment to a world without nuclear weapons," said Robert Norris of the NRDC. Hans Kristensen of FAS added, "Under minimal deterrence, all requirements for war planners to achieve an advantage in a nuclear exchange or limit damage to ourselves will disappear, leaving only in place the most basic mission of a sure retaliatory response.”