Commentary: Should the US increase its nuclear arsenal?

Is it time for the United States to increase its nuclear weapons stockpile? To arms control advocates, this is a dastardly, irresponsible question. But it isn’t coming out of nowhere: Last week, a senior U.S. national security official left the door open to the first expansion of the U.S. nuclear warhead arsenal since the 1980s.

On Friday, Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the National Security Council, during a speech at the Arms Control Association in Washington. The speech wasn’t surprising to anyone who has even a cursory understanding of U.S. nuclear weapons policy., “we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required.”