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  • The Atlantic

    Nuclear War Shouldn’t Be Up to Any One Person

    Congress and President Biden now have a narrow window to restrict the ability of any future president to launch nuclear weapons.
    by Jon B. Wolfsthal Mar 28, 2022 5 minutes
    Source: Adam Maida / The Atlantic; Getty

    President Joe Biden has sought to avoid having the United States or NATO dragged directly into the war in Ukraine for fear that the situation could quickly escalate to a nuclear war with Moscow. This fear is based on his experience but also one simple reality: All American presidents since 1945 have had the unfettered authority to launch nuclear weapons at any time. During the Cold War, this was seen as stabilizing, a deterrent. Today, this presidential power—known as nuclear “sole authority”—is a dangerous anachronism that rests too much on the stability and indeed the sanity of any given president. Stability in the White House is not a given.

    Making that point even more clear, Donald Trump, who seems likely to run again for president of the United States, still talks loosely about . If he wins the 2024 election, he will regain control of America’s, capable of global destruction in minutes. Congress and President Biden now have a narrow window to restrict the ability of any future president to launch nuclear weapons without consent from other senior officials, except in response to a nuclear attack on America or its allies.

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