Former senator Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be the next secretary of defense, has drawn sharp criticism for championing even deeper cuts to military spending, making statements hostile or indifferent to Israel, denigrating pro-Israel groups in the United States as “the Jewish lobby,” and objecting to the potential use of military force to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Another issue that deserves close and careful scrutiny by senators and their staffers, however, is Hagel’s advocacy for global nuclear disarmament—and, toward that end, drastic cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. 

For nearly 70 years, America’s nuclear forces have provided the nation with the ultimate insurance policy against major military aggression by foreign powers. Moreover, the U.S. nuclear deterrent has played a direct and undeniable role in dampening the destabilizing proliferation of nuclear weapons—in particular, by empowering the United States to extend a “nuclear umbrella” of shared security over allies who might otherwise feel compelled to build their own nuclear arms.