The US is ready to use nuclear weapons if necessary but would only do so on terms “acceptable” for the country and its interests, US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) spokesman Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan has said.
Speaking at the Project Atom 2024 event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday, Buchanan noted that such conditions imply that the US will “continue to lead the world.”
“If we have to have an exchange then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States,” which are namely to maintain a position where the US is largely viewed as a world leader, Buchanan said.
The admiral noted that in the event of a potential nuclear exchange, the US would seek to maintain a portion of its arsenal for continued deterrence.
“We’d have to have reserve capacity. You wouldn’t expend all of your resources to gain winning, right? Because then you would have nothing to deter from at that point,” Buchanan said.
At the same time, he stressed that the US “would not like to be in an environment that would follow the exchange of nuclear strikes,” and seeks to avoid any such scenario. The admiral urged ongoing dialogue with Russia, China, and North Korea to reduce the risk of a nuclear conflict, adding that “nuclear weapons are political weapons.”
His remarks come days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new national nuclear doctrine that outlines the scenarios in which Moscow would be authorized to deploy its nuclear arsenal.
The new doctrine states that Moscow will have the right to consider the nuclear option if Russia or Belarus come under attack by conventional arms, and if such aggression creates a “critical threat” to their sovereignty or territorial integrity.
Commenting on the updated nuclear doctrine, a number of political experts pointed out that it could force the US and other Western nations to reconsider their military support for Ukraine.
Following the publication of the revised rules, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that the new doctrine effectively gives Russia the right to consider a nuclear response to the use of Western-supplied non-nuclear missiles by Kiev against Russian territory.