President Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped the strategic nuclear landscape for the United States, its allies, and our adversaries. Trump’s approach has pursued a more proactive strategy of strengthening America’s credible nuclear defenses while using diplomacy, deterrence, and strategic pressure to reshape the calculations of those who might threaten the U.S. or its allies.

Since the Cold War, America’s commitment to peace through strength has depended on maintaining credible nuclear assurances alongside the military capability to deter aggression. The diplomatic positioning of nonproliferation treaties was the primary method of deterring adversaries’ nuclear programs and maintaining safeguards on systems with existential consequences. Despite such agreements, simultaneously and across the span of over 35 years, the nuclear arsenals and capabilities of Russia, China, North Korea, India, and Pakistan proliferated.