Ep. 68 – Deterrence and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century, with ret. Gen. Bob Kehler

Modern War Institute

John Amble

Government, News

4.7 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode features a conversation with retired US Air Force Gen. Kehler, who finished his military career as commander of US Strategic Command, which oversees America's strategic nuclear arsenal. He talks about how deterrence has changed since the Cold War, and what role he sees for nuclear weapons in the face of new global security challenges.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If I think back to the Cold War, there was a time when strategic deterrence and nuclear deterrence were synonymous.
0:13.2	And when we talked about the strategic deterrent and strategic deterrence, we were really talking about nuclear deterrence.
0:27.6	All of that changed, though, as we began to see that other capabilities had strategic effect.
0:34.6	To include things like missile defenses, and to include things like ISR, and to include things like power projection, and to include things like long-range conventional strike,
0:38.3	to include nuclear weapons, they all have a different effect in the deterrence calculus,
0:45.3	depending on who the adversary is.
0:51.3	I do believe that we are going to have nuclear weapons for as long as I can see into the strategic future.
0:59.0	And I believe that we're going to have to figure out ways to use them effectively for the purposes that they're really designed to fulfill.
1:10.0	And that is to make sure they're never used again.
1:15.5	Hey, welcome to another episode of the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Amble,
1:20.0	editorial director at MWI, and in this episode, MWI's Jake Moraldi talks to retired U.S. Air Force
1:26.0	General Bob Keller.
1:33.2	In 2013, General Keller finished an impressive 39-year military career that culminated in his leadership of the U.S. military's strategic command, better known as Stratcom.
1:38.1	As you'll hear General Keller explain, throughout most of the nuclear age, the word strategic
1:42.8	was almost invariably a reference to nuclear weapons.
1:47.0	But in this discussion, he talks through what are really some pretty remarkable changes that have expanded the set of tools that can really have strategic effects.
1:56.0	But what does this mean for deterrence?
1:59.0	More pointedly, is deterrence as we it, even possible in the 21st century?
2:05.7	General Color addresses these questions and more, touching also on his assessment about the role of nuclear weapons in the future.
2:12.2	Before we get to that conversation, just a couple quick notes.
2:15.5	First, if you've been listening to the MWI podcast and you like it, we would absolutely
2:19.9	love if you could go to iTunes Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast and give us a rating
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