Joe Biden’s Outdated Views On Missile Defense Are A Poor Match For Putin’s Resurgent Russia (From Forbes)

The Biden administration is currently wrapping up reviews of the U.S. nuclear posture and missile defense capabilities. In all likelihood, the reviews will do little more than ratify the status quo: lots of nuclear warheads, very little in the way of strategic defenses. That would be quite unfortunate, given the recent saber rattling Vladimir Putin has engaged in with his own nuclear arsenal. There are any number of readily imaginable scenarios in which the absence of U.S. defenses could gravely compromise U.S. security. What if regional crises in places like Eastern Europe escalate to the nuclear level? What if communication breaks down in a crisis? What if adversaries like Putin prove to be irrational and thus undeterrable? What if an adversary’s command and control system is compromised, leading to an accidental or unauthorized launch of nuclear weapons against America? I have written a commentary for Forbes here.