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Xu Guangyu:Nuclear Transparency(4)
Time：2013-05-11 19:07         Author:Xu Guangyu         Source:军控协会，
Transparency in nuclear armament of superpowers is similar to transparency in nuclear strategy, but the transparency only stays in helping to strengthen its nuclear deterrent level. The key problems and the specific technical aspects, such as the deployment of specific locations of nuclear weapons, the key technology of nuclear weapons power and performance must be confidential, not having the slightest chance in transparency. Their transparency in nuclear armament features on emphasizing the quality, revealing quantity, highlighting the deterrence, and concealing technology.
⒋Transparency in nuclear attacks
As to transparency in nuclear operation, it covers transparency in aspects of strategic nuclear strike plan, command and control procedures, operational and tactical nuclear war plan, the doctrine of nuclear weapons usage, and leading organs, civil defense, and army under nuclear warfare conditions. In this regard, the nuclear countries usually adopt selected and limited transparency policy. Especially after the end of cold war, other nuclear states announced that they wouldn’t take big cites of each other as a strategic nuclear strike target in order to reduce nuclear powers mistrust, enhance mutual trust. But there still remains secret in specific content of preparation and planning of nuclear war. For example, the two nuclear strike mission nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines cruise area, location, route and time points, and troops of nuclear weapons of combat duty and command system operation plans, procedures and practices, are forbidden to reveal by those nuclear countries.
The different levels of nuclear information transparency is mainly revealed through their annual defense report, the Nuclear Posture Review, relevant government announcements and documents, declarations, the relevant bodies of the United Nations international research institutions report, and nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements or treaties and etc.
Nuclear transparency not only has a positive role in promoting nuclear security and nuclear balance among the national entities, but also contributes to preventing and constraining non-state actors, especially the group of nuclear terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons, nuclear materials and nuclear technology in an illegal way. At least it can greatly increase difficulty in obtaining these dangerous materials and technologies for the illegal groups and individuals and strengthen international supervision, verification and investigation ability in this field.
Ⅱ.The features of transparency on military nuclear
As for the temporary countries which own the nuclear power, most of them share the same interests in the transparency of military nuclear. Especially in the situation of potential or overt mutual strategic confrontation, both sides have the eager to know the desires and demands of the opposite side, but the reality manifests that this kind of transparency poses obvious relativity, including:
ⅰ.The differences in the transparency of nuclear
In the level of nuclear policy and nuclear strategy, the transparency of nuclear countries don’t have much differences and they can come into an agreement easily, but in the construction of nuclear military and nuclear force, and the preparation for nuclear war, it is really hard for those countries to achieve the same level of transparency.
The nuclear transparency is an important tactic to keep the balance of global nuclear power and nuclear security in the nuclear era. But in the different levels of the nuclear policy, nuclear strategy, and nuclear armament, those countries would adopt different degrees of transparency, because the strength, status and politics, economy, ideology, military theory of those countries are very different, and strategic environment and potential rivals of those country are also very distinctive. From the temporary condition, there are several situations: First is elative transparency, namely most of the information can be overt except the necessary confidentiality aspects in general or different levels. Such as in selection of nuclear policy and nuclear strategy, most of the nuclear countries adopt this kind of mode. Second is limited transparency, that is to retain partial opacity in general or some kind of level. For example, some nuclear countries maintain the transparency on species and ability of the nuclear armament, but to keep opacity on concrete number and employment. Third is total opacity, that is all levels of the nuclear information are secrete to outside. Because those nuclear countries have different selections on the transparency, there are different modes of the nuclear transparency. (军控协会)