Thomas Graham Jr.

Thomas Graham Jr., a former senior U.S. diplomat, is the president of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security. In the following viewpoint, he takes issue with the idea that the United States should explicitly threaten the use of nuclear arms against any nation that attempts to attack it using biological weapons. The United States has pledged not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states who have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); Graham argues that to make an exception in the case of a biological weapons attack would undermine efforts against nuclear proliferation by encouraging non-nuclear states that fear biological weapons to develop nuclear arms. The United States should instead utilize its significant conventional military assets to deter other nations from waging biological warfare, he concludes.

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