New Conventional Weapons, Reducing Reliance on a Nuclear Response Toward Aggressors

We are in a new era of warfare, one in which our warfighting and strategy paradigms must change due to unconventional threats our nation faces and is further complicated by evolving technology, emerging states, rogue nations, and terrorist groups. With the fall of the Soviet Union, our old nemesis has been beaten, but many of the impulsive entities it formerly sponsored and controlled are now unbridled to act on their own. We face terrorism abroad daily and it now reaches us within our own borders. This paper explores military options to acts of aggression against our citizens, forces and allies that our tactical nuclear weapons stockpile previously held in check during the Cold War.