By Lindsay Potter and John LaForge

At its June 29 summit in Madrid, NATO ministers approved a new “Strategic Concept,” the public rationale for its ready willingness to use nuclear weapons (known as “deterrence”). Self-contradictory and heavy with euphemism, the paper says “nuclear capability is to preserve peace, prevent coercion, and deter aggression,” painting nuclear weapons with a gloss of propriety using language identical to all nuclear weapons states including Russia, North Korea, and China. The “Concept” casually rejects NATO member states’ binding obligation to disarm — agreed to in the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) — asserting: “As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance.” This promise to retain nuclear weapons indefinitely openly negates the paper’s assertion of NATO’s compliance with the NPT. The document claims that NATO is “strongly committed to [the NPT’s] full implementation, including article VI, which is the promise to denuclearize,” and seeks “to create the security environment for a world without nuclear weapons.” Yes, of course, because the best way to prevent a fire in your house is to walk around carrying a lit torch. The “concept” openly admits that “NATO … relies on the United States’ nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Europe.” And to confirm that it is willing to commit mass destruction with radiation and firestorms, the ministers promised, “NATO will … ensure the credibility … of the nuclear … mission”; “NATO’s … posture is based on … nuclear … capabilities”; and “We will … deliver … high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors.” Of course, the great majority of nation states find that nuclear weapons pose the most immediate and worst threat to human survival, as witness the 122 states that voted to adopt the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons. Common sense aside, NATO’s “concept” says that “strategic nuclear forces, particularly those of the United States, are the supreme guarantee of the security of the Alliance.”

— Strategic Concept here: https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/290622-strategic-concept.pdf