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Nuclear doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is now out of date

if the two sides agree to do away with mutual nuclear deterrence through a legally binding, verifiable agreement, which could also form the basis for future weapons reductions. Such a step would represent a radical departure from the status quo, but its time may well have come.

Time to Put an End to MAD,  The Moscow Times, 18 January 2011By Samuel Charap and Mikhail Troitskiy “…… as long as mutual nuclear deterrence defines the relationship between the United States and Russia on nuclear issues, future arms deals will likely prove far more difficult to negotiate and be subject to even greater domestic political resistance. To change these dynamics, instead of pursuing a further round of numerical cuts, Washington and Moscow should consider using the next treaty to renounce deterrence.

New START proceeds from the Cold War-era doctrine that one side’s nuclear stockpiles deter the other from attack because both maintain a devastating second-strike capability — a situation captured by the phrase “mutually assured destruction,” or MAD.

This doctrine made sense when Moscow was the capital of an ideological, expansionist global superpower that the United States considered its mortal enemy. But this is clearly not the case with Russia today, even according to its fiercest critics. Indeed, the basic premise of MAD — that barring the threat of nuclear destruction, one side would actively take aggressive steps against the other — is absurd in the post-Cold War environment since a situation when either country would threaten to use the weapons against the other is both politically and militarily unimaginable.

Although the Cold War ended 20 years ago, deterrence still defines U.S.-Russian relations on nuclear issues, and this is the main reason for the bilateral and domestic friction surrounding arms control issues. Many of the difficulties the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama faced in convincing Republican senators to vote for New START — especially fears about the treaty’s implications for missile defense — as well as Russia’s reliance on tactical nuclear forces  in an attempt to “compensate” for its comparative weakness in conventional forces reflect this outdated premise.

If both sides could agree to definitively forswear deterrence, these roadblocks would disappear. ……………
The disputes between Washington and Moscow, whether they concern Russia’s human rights record or U.S. policy toward Russia’s neighbors, could be better addressed if the two sides agree to do away with mutual nuclear deterrence through a legally binding, verifiable agreement, which could also form the basis for future weapons reductions. Such a step would represent a radical departure from the status quo, but its time may well have come.

Time to Put an End to MAD | Opinion | The Moscow Times

January 18, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, USA, weapons and war