Nuclear Football

NATO officials apparently are willing to accept the pass they are being offered on the issue of U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe after a senior Pentagon official said the U.S. government will debate the future of these weapons in the context of the alliance's new strategic concept.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy said earlier this month U.S. officials will not take a unilateral position on the continued need for the forward-deployed atomic bombs in the upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, but rather would seek a NATO-wide resolution of the matter.

At issue is whether Washington will keep an estimated 200 nuclear weapons on the continent. The weapons are remnants of a much bigger arsenal once designed to deter Soviet aggression during the height of the Cold War. Several high-ranking European politicians have recently spoken out against the keeping of nuclear weapons in their countries.

"The strategic concept will have to mention nuclear forces one way or the other," Stéphane Abrial, NATO's supreme allied commander for transformation, told reporters this morning. While meetings on the thorny issue are already going on, the matter really rests with the alliance's political -- not military -- decision-making circles, Abrial said.

Work on new NATO strategic concept is supposed to be finished by the end of the year, when alliance leaders meet in Lisbon, Portugal.