High Level Nuclear Conference in Rome

On March 1, 2010 the NATO Defense College in Rome holds a major conference on “The Future of NATO’s Nuclear Deterrent”.

This workshop will be the fifth in a series of seminars that began in 2007 addressing nuclear forces and related deterrence challenges facing the United States and its NATO Allies. The purpose of the workshop series is to gain a better understanding of deterrence and to consider how NATO might address security challenges in an international environment dramatically different from that of the Cold War.

The Rome workshop’s focus reflects the fact that international arms control, disarmament, and non proliferation issues have implications for the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence posture. The Allies have an interest in devising deterrence and non proliferation policies that are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The Alliance’s nuclear-sharing arrangements and other aspects of NATO policy are likely to be issues at the May 2010 NPT Review Conference and will be formally addressed in NATO’s Strategic Concept review. The new Strategic Concept is to be completed in time for approval at the NATO summit in November 2010 in Lisbon.

The Rome workshop will take up four broad issues:

• the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence policies, especially the relationship with U.S. extended deterrence in NATO;
• assessments of potential future requirements for the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence posture, in light of possible developments in international politics;
• the significance for the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence posture of the May 2010 NPT Review Conference; and, in the longer term,
• the possible implications for the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence posture of the pursuit of “deep cuts” in nuclear forces, with a view to achieving the “global zero” objective of nuclear disarmament.

The Rome-conference, which is co-sponsored by the US-Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), brings together leading international experts and NATO officials.

NDC Public Affairs Office