45

As soon as he took office, Donald Trump tasked the US Department of Defense with conducting a review of the United States’ nuclear posture. While the Obama administration had initially laid ambitious plans in favor of nuclear disarmament, from 2014 onward it ended up strengthening the United States’ deterrence posture and modernizing its nuclear arsenal as tensions increased with Russia, China, and North Korea. Despite Donald Trump’s initial statements, the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review is more reflective of continuity than change, while preparing US deterrence policy for an era of renewed strategic competition between major powers. These new doctrinal orientations not only reaffirm the role of nuclear weapons in US strategy, but once again embrace the view that military superiority is the main way of ensuring US national security.