Whatever may be the actual strategic nuclear war plans produced by the nuclear weapon states one thing is certainly clear. The dominant theme of declaratory policy has been nuclear deterrence. So with this view we are concerned with such questions as; what is the best way, using nuclear weapons, to deter another state from using them in a first strike?

That is nuclear deterrence has hitherto (not necessarily in action policy) been about deterring another state from using them against another state. It has also been about deterring “weapons of mass destruction” use (PDD60) and it has also been used to deter large scale conventional attacks.

Nuclear deterrence has now gone a notch further to include the deterrence of terrorism specifically nuclear terrorism.

It would appear that the “negligence doctrine” that I have spoken of previously has been actually, that is officially, adopted in new presidential guidance that definitely includes the deterrence of nuclear terrorism by way of nuclear weapons.

I have written a short article about it that is currently looking for a publisher.

I am very tempted to circumvent that process and leave it here.