Topic Explorer

The Topic Explorer uses the same search and topic filters for all of the different resources on this site. It is meant to allow easy cross-examination of different issues.

Topics

1940s (29) 1950s (32) 1960s (43) 1970s (21) 1980s (17) 1990s (8) 2000s (5) 2010s (24) Bush, George W. (1) Carter, James (6) Chain of command (15) Civilian-military divide (22) Clinton, William J. (2) Congress (21) Congressional Research Service (4) Constitutionality (6) Custody (22) Cybersecurity (3) Directives (6) Doctrine (20) Early warning systems (17) Eisenhower, Dwight D. (20) Ford, Gerald R. (2) France (12) India (11) Israel (7) Johnson, Lyndon B. (11) Kennedy, John F. (24) Law of war (9) Missiles (6) NATO (21) News Media (18) Nixon, Richard M. (11) Non-Use (8) North Korea (10) Nuclear accidents (17) Nuclear football (17) Nuclear launch procedure (32) Nuclear safety (34) Nuclear war plans (31) Obama, Barack (8) Oral history (1) Overseas deployment (19) Pakistan (17) People's Republic of China (15) Permissive Action Links (23) Predelegation (17) Presidential nuclear control (57) RAND Corporation (4) Reagan, Ronald (8) Remedies (5) Russian Federation (16) South Africa (1) Soviet Union (23) Succession (3) Truman, Harry S. (21) Trump, Donald J. (18) Two-man rule (9) United Kingdom (19) United States of America (126) US Air Force (21) US Atomic Energy Commission (15) US Department of Defense (28) US Department of Energy (5) US Joint Chiefs of Staff (17) US National Security Council (7) US Secretary of Defense (11) US Strategic Air Command (15) US Strategic Command (15) World War II (8)

Primers

Presidential unilateral nuclear use authority under Truman: In the United States, the authority to use nuclear weapons is vested in the President of the United States.
Nuclear launch process: The nuclear launch process of the United States is a topic of high interest and importance but is also subject to considerable misunderstanding.

Documents

Date ▼	Title	File
2017-11-14	Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Nuclear Weapons Authority	PDF
2015-05-19	USAF, Annex 3-72 Nuclear Operations	PDF
2014-10-02	USAF, Air Force Instruction 13-550 ("Air Force Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications")	PDF
1996-02-12	USJCS, "Nuclear Supplement to Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan For FY 1996"	PDF
1987-08-21	National Security Decision Directive 281	PDF
1985-01	The Command and Control of Nuclear War	PDF
1978-02	OASOD, "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 through September 1977"	PDF
1975-12-01	CRS, "Authority to order the use of nuclear weapons"	PDF
1975-06	IDA, "The Evolution of U.S. Strategic Command and Control and Warning, 1945-1972"	PDF
1969-08	Presidential Succession and the Authority to Release Nuclear Weapons	PDF
1961-07-16	Atomic Stockpiles Memorandum	PDF
1952-09-10	NSC, "Agreed Concepts Regarding Atomic Weapons"	PDF
1952-06-11	NSC on Atomic Energy: 1952 Staff Study	PDF
1948-09-10	NSC-30, "United States Policy on Atomic Warfare"	PDF
1945-08-10	Groves to Marshall on third atomic bomb (with reply)	PDF

Bibliographies

Woolf, Amy F. Command and Control of Nuclear Forces. Defense Primer 7-5700. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2016. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/IF10521.pdf.

Wellerstein, Alex and Avner Cohen. "If Trump wants to use nuclear weapons, whether it’s ‘legal’ won’t matter." Washington Post, November 22, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/22/if-trump-wants-to-use-nuclear-weapons-whether-its-legal-wont-matter/?utm_term=.b893af9d38d5.

Wellerstein, Alex. "No one can stop President Trump from using nuclear weapons. That's by design." Washington Post, December 1, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/01/no-one-can-stop-president-trump-from-using-nuclear-weapons-thats-by-design/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.05b5b6a7fe06.

Wellerstein, Alex. "The President and the Bomb." The Nuclear Secrecy Blog. November 18th, 2016. http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2016/11/18/the-president-and-the-bomb/.

Walker, J. Samuel. Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Tamkin, Emily. "Lawmakers Introduce Bill Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons." Foreign Policy. January 24, 2017. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/24/senator-and-congressman-introduce-restricting-first-use-of-nuclear-weapons-act-trump/?utm_campaign=New+Campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_term=%2AEditors+Picks.

Slocombe, Walter B. Democratic Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons. Policy Paper no. 12. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), 2006. https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/pp12_democratic_civilian_control_nuclear_weapons.pdf.

Singh, Robert S. "The United States Congress and Nuclear War Powers: Explaining Legislative Nonfeasance." The Journal of Legislative Studies 24, no. 3 (2018): 298-314.

Schlosser, Eric. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. New York: The Penguin Press, 2013.

Rosenbaum, Ron. "An Unsung Hero of the Nuclear Age: Maj. Harold Hering and the forbidden question that cost him his career." Slate, February 28, 2011. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2011/02/an_unsung_hero_of_the_nuclear_age.single.html.

Rogoway, Tyler. "Pentagon May Replace Its Doomsday Planes And 'Air Force Two' With One New Type." The Drive. June 24, 2017. http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/11207/pentagon-may-replace-its-doomsday-planes-and-air-force-two-with-one-new-type.

Raven-Hansen, Peter. "Nuclear War Powers." The American Journal of International Law 83, no. 4 (October 1989): 786-795.

Nolan, Janne E. Guardians of the Arsenal: The Politics of Nuclear Strategy. New York: Basic Books, 1989.

Mecklin, John. "Duke’s Peter Feaver on the president and US nuclear command and control." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. November 30, 2017. https://thebulletin.org/2017/11/dukes-peter-feaver-on-the-president-and-us-nuclear-command-and-control/.

MacDonald, Eryn. "Whose Finger Is on the Button? Nuclear Launch Authority in the United States and Other Nations." Union of Concerned Scientists. October, 2017. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/11/Launch-Authority.pdf.

Lewis, Jeffrey. "Our Nuclear Procedures Are Crazier Than Trump." Foreign Policy. August 5, 2016. https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/05/our-nuclear-procedures-are-crazier-than-trump/.

Lanouette, William. "Civilian Control Of Nuclear Weapons." Arms Control Today 39, no. 4 (May 2009): 45-48. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2009_5/Lanouette.

Lamothe, Dan. "If Trump wants a nuclear attack against North Korea, his military advisers have few other options." Washington Post. August 10, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/10/if-trump-wants-a-nuclear-attack-against-north-korea-his-military-advisers-have-few-other-options/?utm_term=.924fe6b2f5e5#comments.

Johnson, Tim. "Trump’s finger soon will hover over the nuclear button. Will he be ready?" McClatchy DC. November 25, 2016. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article117054908.html.

Hering, Harold. "Nukes." Interview with Latif Nasser. Radiolab. Podcast audio, April 7, 2017. https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/nukes.

Grossman, Elaine. "How Putin Might Yank Away Trump’s Control Over America’s Nuclear Weapons." War is Boring. July 3, 2017. https://warisboring.com/how-putin-might-yank-away-trumps-control-over-americas-nuclear-weapons/.

Graff, Garrett M. "The President’s Secret Air Force." Politico. May 2, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/02/the-presidents-secret-air-force-215091.

Graff, Garrett M. "The Madman and the Bomb." Politico. August 11, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/11/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-richard-nixon-215478.

Goldstein, Yonkel. "The Failure of Constitutional Controls over War Powers in the Nuclear Age: The Argument for a Constitutional Amendment." Stanford Law Review 40, no. 6 (July 1988): 1543-1592.

Ford, Daniel F. The Button: The Pentagon’s Strategic Command and Control System. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Feaver, Peter D. Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Ellsberg, Daniel. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Eatinger, Robert. "Riddles of Armageddon: Legal Enigmas of a Nuke Launch Order." The Cipher Brief. January 23, 2018. https://www.thecipherbrief.com/riddles-armageddon-legal-enigmas-nuke-launch-order.

Demirjian, Karoun. "Trump’s nuclear authority divides senators alarmed by his ‘volatile’ behavior." Washington Post, November 14, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senators-deadlock-in-debate-over-whether-to-restrain-trumps-nuclear-launch-authority/2017/11/14/491a994a-c95b-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.5eecae311b16.

Curry, Dan. Always/Never: The Quest for Safety, Control & Survivability. Documentary. Sandia National Laboratories, 2010.

Conley, Jerome M. "Nuclear Command and Control in the Twenty-First Century: Trends, Disparities, and the Impact on Stability." In Debating 21st Century Nuclear Issues, edited by Owen Price and Jenifer Mackby, 226-250. Washington, D.C.: Center for International and Strategic Studies, 2007. https://www.csis.org/analysis/debating-21st-century-nuclear-issues.

Congressional Research Service. Authority to order the use of nuclear weapons (United States, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, People's Republic of China). Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 1975. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003216700/Home.

Colangelo, Anthony J. "The Duty to Disobey Illegal Nuclear Strike Orders." SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 368. Harvard National Security Journal 9 (August 2018): https://ssrn.com/abstract=3048979.

Carter, Ashton B., Charles A. Zraket, and John D. Steinbruner. Managing Nuclear Operations. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1987.

Burr, William. Presidential Control of Nuclear Weapons: The "Football." Briefing Book #632. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2018. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-07-09/presidential-control-nuclear-weapons-football.

Burr, William. "Consultation is Presidential Business": Secret Understandings on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1950-1974. Electronic Briefing Book No. 159. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2005. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB159/.

Burns, Robert and Richard Lardner. " Retired US general says nuclear launch order can be refused." AP News. November 14, 2017. https://www.apnews.com/14eb66de62fc49b181680ccbd7394646.

Blair, Bruce G. "Strengthening Checks on Presidential Nuclear Launch Authority." Arms Control Today 48, no. 1 (Jan/Feb 2018). https://www.armscontrol.org/sites/default/files/files/ACT/ACT_JanFeb18_Blair_Prepublication.pdf.

Beres, Louis René. "What if you don’t trust the judgment of the president whose finger is over the nuclear button?" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. August 23, 2016. https://thebulletin.org/2016/08/what-if-you-dont-trust-the-judgment-of-the-president-whose-finger-is-over-the-nuclear-button/.

Bader, Jeffrey and Jonathan D. Pollack. "Time to Restrict the President’s Power to Wage Nuclear War." New York Times. September 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/opinion/time-to-restrict-the-presidents-power-to-wage-nuclear-war.html.