Publication

NATO allies are divided about the future roles of nuclear weapons and missile defense within their organization. As a result, the Lisbon summit declaration of 2010 tasked the NATO Council "to continue to review NATO's overall posture in deterring and defending against the full range of threats to the Alliance." This commentary traces the various divisions of opinion about the above issues and concludes that an Alliance-based missile defense against potential Middle Eastern threats is necessary, as are the pursuit of parallel arms control measures.