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The United States announced this week a new strategic policy for its nuclear weapons that puts unprecedented emphasis on the nuclear threat from terrorists and rogue states, as opposed to traditional nuclear powers like Russia and China. Some analysts see the new policy as an important step in meeting the changing international situation. But critics call the move reckless and irresponsible. The Nuclear Posture Review - the third since the end of the Cold War - limits the circumstances under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, with a long-term goal of achieving a nuclear-free world. The Obama administration's...

PRAGUE: Barack Obama met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague last night to sign a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty that slashes their nations' atomic arsenals. The two heads of state were expected to sign a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty a year after the US President called for a nuclear-free world in a keynote speech. The new treaty, which must be ratified by the US Senate and Russia's parliament to take effect, also imposes limits on the intercontinental ballistic missiles needed to deliver the warheads. The White House hopes the treaty will help yield warmer relations with...

TEHRAN, Iran — U.S. allies on Wednesday lined up behind President Barack Obama's new policy aimed at reducing the likelihood of nuclear conflict. But Iran — classified as a possible target under the guideliness — dismissed it as a "cowboy" policy by a political newcomer doomed to fail. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in the Slovak capital Bratislava for an official visit, did not address the issue before leaving for Prague to sign a landmark treaty Thursday with Obama aimed at paring U.S.-Russian strategic nuclear weapons by 30 percent. But Washington's supporters in Asia and Europe welcomed Obama's pledge Tuesday to...

President Obama's strategy to protect us from the danger of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism is about to be tested. The precept that good deeds (and fabulous speeches) beget good deeds will face reality at two major international conferences: Obama's Nuclear Security Summit in mid April and the Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in May. Obama proffered an attractive vision of a world without nuclear weapons, and a theory--that if Russia and the U.S. reduce their stockpiles, other nations will be inspired either to give up their nuclear arms or refrain from acquiring them. That is...

Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration is releasing a major statement on nuclear weapons policy that will herald a further shrinking of the U.S. arsenal, even as it rejects some sweeping steps advocated by arms control advocates. The statement, to be released Tuesday, will announce that the arsenal will shrink by thousands of warheads, and it will further restrict when the weapons may be used, U.S. officials say. But the administration has rejected proposals to declare that the "sole purpose" of nuclear arms is deterrence, nor will it promise that the United States won't be the first to use...

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense. But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for “outliers like Iran and North Korea” that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation. Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to...