The policy document, called the Nuclear Posture Review, followed a year of deliberation led by the Pentagon in consultation with allied governments. It is the first review of nuclear weapons policy since 2001 and only the third since the end of the Cold War two decades ago.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen unveiled the new policy Tuesday at a Pentagon briefing.
The release of the NPR on Tuesday was the first in a string of events related to nuclear security.
Obama will sign a new arms reduction treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.
The White House hopes to overcome Russia's expressed reluctance to move beyond START, especially if it means cutting Moscow's arsenal of tactical, or short-range, nuclear arms, an area in which Russia holds an advantage.
These so-called theater nuclear weapons play a key role in Russia's overall defense strategy and are regarded in Moscow as an important bargaining chip on security issues.
The timing of a planned US push for new, broader arms talks with Russia is uncertain. But officials said the proposal would only come after US and Russian legislative approval of the new START pact, which isn't expected until the end of this year.
These would be follow-on negotiations to the newly completed "New START" treaty reducing long-range nuclear weapons. The Russian Parliament is almost certain to sign off on any deal negotiated by the Kremlin, but the US Senate's ratification of the new START treaty is not guaranteed.
Also on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia reserves the right to withdraw from the new treaty if it decides a US missile defense shield, now planned for Romania, threatens its security.
He also said Moscow shares Obama's goal of a nuclear-free world, but other nations must join the disarmament process.
Obama has said the biggest threat to global security is nuclear terrorism, which is the subject of a nuclear security summit of world leaders he will host in Washington on April 12 and 13.
Analysts say the treaty will reflect an emerging geopolitical truth — that the protective shield of a nuclear arsenal, while not yet obsolete, is a remnant of an earlier superpower era.
Thousands of nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles and the power to wreak destruction on an enemy could not prevent the worst-ever attack on US soil — not by a hostile nation state but by Al-Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001.
The new American strategy acknowledges the reality that nuclear proliferation to rogue states and to non-state actors poses a much greater threat to our security than do countries such as China and Russia. Pakistan and India, with a per capita income of barely $1,000, has joined the nuclear club.
Exempt from Obama's kinder, gentler nuclear policy are Iran and North Korea. He says both have violated or renounced the treaty to halt nuclear proliferation. The president said he wants new sanctions against Iran that "have bite."
An Iranian official responded on Tuesday by calling the sanction threats “a joke” and said the country had no plans to abandon its nuclear activities under the threat of sanctions.
Obama's revised policy on nuclear weapons won't have any impact on his previous vow to provide loan guarantees on the first two nuclear power-generating reactors to be built in the US since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.
