Thinking Clearly about “NATO-Like” Nuclear Sharing
Joshua Byun [ Assistant Professor, Boston College ]
‣ The heyday of nuclear sharing in NATO was the late 1950s, when the United States took substantive steps to ensure that core European allies would be able to access and employ U.S.-made nuclear weapons without direct authorization from Washington.
‣ Such arrangements were drastically curtailed in the early 1960s; NATO today practices what might properly be called a non-substantive or “vestigial” form of nuclear sharing.
‣ Proposals to import “NATO-like” nuclear sharing arrangements to the ROK-U.S. alliance today typically betray confusion and ignorance about these basic facts.
