• The timeframe: The Nuclear Posture Review establishes U.S. nuclear strategy for the next five to 10 years.
• What it means: It will for the first time rule out using nuclear weapons in response to biological, chemical or massive conventional attacks by non-nuclear nations that are in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• The exceptions to the rule: The exceptions to those new restraints are Iran, North Korea or to nations that aren't in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• The Russia strategy: It maintains a U.S. force of hundreds of deployed warheads whose core mission remains to deter nuclear attack by Russia, the only nuclear-armed nation whose arsenal represents an existential threat to the United States.
• Tactical weapons in Europe: The strategy also maintains an estimated 150 to 200 U.S. tactical -- or short-range -- nuclear weapons in Europe, leaving it up to the 28-nation NATO alliance to decide by consensus whether they should be withdrawn, as proposed by Germany.
