Religion & Law

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The New York Times

Mon, April 05, 2010 -- 8:15 PM ET



Obama Limits When U.S. Can Use Nuclear Weapons



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.



The strategy eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the Cold War. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.

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On the "No Catholic argument with this," see John Finnis, Joseph Boyle Jr. and Germain Grisez, Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism (Oxford, 1988), here.

[Cross-posted at ReligionLeftLaw.]