NATO’s theater nuclear weapons and their impact on Europe’s security

Abstract

The issue of Theater Nuclear Weapons (ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500–5500 kilometers) located in Europe has always been the subject of intensive discussions starting with their first deployments including today’s issue of gravity bombs in certain European countries. On one hand these theater nuclear weapons has been supposed to symbolize the transatlantic bond and the American commitment towards the European allies, however, even in the cold war years in the (nuclear) arms race it was known, that they represent an enormous risk for the euroatlantic security by possibly leading to a major nuclear exchange. The United States and the Soviet Union finally began to talk about disarmament in the 1980s and as a result they signed the INF Treaty in 1987.