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

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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.

Documents

Date ▲	Title	File
1946-08-01	US Atomic Energy Act of 1946	PDF
1964-12-01	DDRS, Briefing to the Gilpatric Committee by William J. Howard	PDF
1969-08	Presidential Succession and the Authority to Release Nuclear Weapons	PDF
2017-11-14	Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Nuclear Weapons Authority	PDF
2017-11-14	Use of Nuclear Weapons Authority	PDF

Bibliographies

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.

Born, Hans, Bates Gill, and Heiner Hänggi (eds). Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Woolf, Amy F. "Congress and US Nuclear Weapons: Review and Oversight of Policies and Programs." Nonproliferation Review 14, no. 3 (November 2007): 499-516,

Woolf, Amy F. and James D. Werner. The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Overview of Department of Energy Sites. CRS Report No. R45306. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2018. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R45306.pdf.