The Baltic States, NATO and Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons in Europe
In the debate over NATO's non-strategic nuclear weapons, the perspectives of the Baltic States have a particular resonance
A debate within NATO about the future of US non-strategic nuclear weapons stationed in Europe has been revived over the past few years after a lengthy period in which the issue lay dormant. Renewed arguments in favour of removing the weapons have gained traction in some NATO capitals, partly in response to President Obama’s 2009 speech in Prague and calls to reduce the world’s growing nuclear dangers. However, opposition to any change has also been strong.
This paper, the second in a series examining the position of a key group of NATO member states in the debate, focuses on the Baltic States. Due to their geostrategic location, the perspectives of the three Baltic States have a particular resonance. For them, NATO’s primary purpose is collective defence through the Article V commitment and the maintenance of the necessary capabilities for deterrence and defence. Their priority and principal focus, therefore, is on ensuring the credibility of these capabilities, the transatlantic link and the US nuclear deterrent.
The Baltic States are wary of any proposals for change which could, in their view, weaken the credibility of the commitment to collective defence, and are sceptical about those proposals that involve Russian reciprocity. Changes are not excluded, but can be considered only after the question ‘will we be more secure?’ is answered.
About the Authors
Shatabhisha Shetty is deputy director of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. Prior to this, she served as the primary clerk to the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. During this period, she also worked on the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies’ Nuclear Analysis Programme. Previously, she was communications officer for two Members of the Scottish Parliament, and worked for the former British defence secretary, Lord Browne of Ladyton. She has also held positions at the British Council in London and the European Commission in Brussels. Shatabhisha holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and an MSc in International Public Policy from University College London.
Dr Ian Kearns is director of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, and a member of the BASIC Trident Commission. Previously, Dr Kearns served as acting director and deputy director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and deputy chair of the IPPR’s independent All-Party Commission on National Security in the Twenty-First Century, in which he served under commission co-chairs Lord George Robertson and Lord Paddy Ashdown. He also served as a specialist adviser to the Joint House of Commons/House of Lords Committee on National Security.
He has over twenty years of experience working on foreign and security policy issues and has published on a wide range of issues including Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the US, nuclear non-proliferation, the enlargement of the European Union, conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the security situation in Northern Ireland. He is a former director of the Graduate Programme in International Studies at the University of Sheffield and a former director in the Global Government Industry Practice at Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Simon Lunn is a senior associate fellow of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. He served as secretary-general of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 1997 until 2007 following eight years as the deputy secretary-general, during which time he initiated and implemented the assembly’s programme of partnership and assistance to the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe. As head of plans and policy on NATO’s International Staff from 1983 until 1989 he was involved in all aspects of NATO defence planning, and was a member of the High Level Task Force on preparations for the Conventional Forces Europe (CFE) negotiations. Between 1979 and 1981, he worked at the US Congressional Research Service, writing reports for Congress on NATO strategy, as well as working on the 1979 INF decision and participating in the Senate hearings on the ratification of SALT II. During the 1970s, as director of the North Atlantic Assembly’s Defence Committee, he worked extensivelyon the role of nuclear weapons in NATO strategy. Simon holds a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Wales and an MA in War Studies from King’s College London. He is currently a senior fellow at DCAF in Geneva and a consultant with the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, DC.