Is it time for Japan to consider acquiring nuclear weapons?

What about America’s nuclear forces? Are they the right size for today’s challenging international landscape?

TNI’s Executive Editor, Harry J. Kazianis, spoke with Christine M. Leah, a postdoctoral Grand Strategy Fellow at Yale University to explore these topics and more. Also, please see Ms. Leah’s recent piece also authored by MIT’s Harvey M. Sapolsky: “Let Asia Go Nuclear.” An excerpt of the piece is below, and you can read the whole article here.

America’s policy of opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons needs to be more nuanced. What works for the United States in the Middle East may not in Asia. We do not want Iran or Saudi Arabia to get the bomb, but why not Australia, Japan, and South Korea? We are opposed to nuclear weapons because they are the great military equalizer, because some countries may let them slip into the hands of terrorists, and because we have significant advantage in precision conventional weapons. But our opposition to nuclear weapons in Asia means we are committed to a costly and risky conventional arms race with China over our ability to protect allies and partners lying nearer to China than to us and spread over a vast maritime theater.

Read more: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/time-japan-get-its-own-nuclear-weapons-11773