Transatlantic Security

Transatlantic Security in numbers

As part of its military doctrine, NATO relies on nuclear weapons for deterrence against Russia. Yet, in an increasingly uncertain security environment, states continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals bringing about new risks and challenges.
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Nuclear Weapons

The United States and Russia have a combined stockpile of 8,350 nuclear warheads.

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B61 gravity bombs

The United States continues to forward deploy nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, as it has since the end of the Cold War.

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NATO Nuclear States

France, the UK and the US, NATO's three nuclear weapon states, have a combined stockpile of 6065 nuclear warheads deployed and in storage.

Transatlantic Security.

How do we ensure the future of euro-transatlantic security? And what is the role of nuclear weapons in that future?

For over 30 years, BASIC has worked with governments, academics, think tanks and journalists on issues relating to nuclear deterrence in NATO and strategic relations with Russia, on both sides of the Atlantic. At a time when transatlanticism is being strained by the Trump Presidency, BASIC provides analysis of the diverse European responses to the strategic US-Russian relationship, and how this interacts with the United States and NATO nuclear posture.

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Since the advent of the Trump Presidency, BASIC has highlighted the risks and consequences of increasing reliance on nuclear weapons for Europeans. Read our Washington Dispatches and latest publications on the US nuclear weapons policy
We are grateful for the generous support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Network for Social Change, the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation, and all of our donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Analysis and Publications for this Programme

BASIC aims to translate US nuclear decision-making for Europe, and be a voice for European states in Washington D.C.

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Report: Reporting on Nuclear Disarmament – Success and Failure in 25 Years of Disarmament Diplomacy

Nuclear disarmament has fallen off the public agenda. Media attention is sporadic and reactive, focusing on short-term trends like summits with North Korea or sanctions on Iran. But the longer-term process of global disarmament rarely features in the news cycle and where there is reference it is treated with disdain as unrealistic. This has serious costs to public engagement and democratic accountability.

Active Programmes

BASIC believes in making progress on nuclear disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation through multiple complementary approaches. We continuously develop our programmes – streams of research – through sustained engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, collectively searching for the art of the possible.

Our current programmes are listed below. View the current programmes page by clicking here.