Publication

The United States and the Russian Federation continue to maintain large numbers of nuclear forces on high levels of alert, ready to launch within minutes. The most important argument against reducing the operational readiness of nuclear forces is the claim that de-alerting would create crisis instability by triggering a race to re-alert that could prompt a nuclear-weapon state to launch its nuclear forces first. But almost none of the studies provide actual analysis of the crisis stability scenarios that opponents of de-alerting warn against. This report finds that the basis for the arguments against de-alerting is questionable.