Events | Nuclear Posture Review: Building Our Strength in 2025

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

Senator Fischer warns that America's aging nuclear deterrent is the most important issue no one is talking about.

The event opens in formal Heritage Foundation mode. Derek Morgan welcomes the room, points online viewers to a special report on building the nuclear arsenal of the 21st century, and sets up what is clearly a report rollout. The tone is buttoned up, but the argument is plain: the next administration should treat Bob Peters's work as a serious first draft. Senator Fischer gets early attention. Morgan connects her leadership to Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha and mentions his time working for Ben Sasse. Then the panel gets more direct. A speaker praises the report as a draft for a future Nuclear Posture Review, whether it lands under a Trump 2 or Harris 1 administration. The bigger concern is public understanding. The panel says experts understand the nuclear threat environment, but the American public has not had it explained clearly enough. The problem, in their telling, is concrete. For the first time, the United States faces two near peer nuclear powers, plus other nuclear armed rogue state threats. Congress gets work to do. Members and the administration need to explain why nuclear deterrence exists, why the Defense Department calls it its top priority, and why that priority needs resources. The cost question gets handled head on. The speaker admits nuclear deterrence is expensive, then argues that failure would cost far more. Measured against the defense budget, the nuclear piece is described as fairly small. The close keeps returning to priority. If deterring a strategic attack is the Defense Department's number one mission, Congress has to fund the arsenal behind it. Dr. Kranich gets the final thanks, and the event ends by crediting nuclear deterrence with helping protect the free world and support peace and prosperity for 75 plus years.

As heard by us

A Heritage Foundation event connects nuclear deterrence with public persuasion, congressional funding, and the cost of failure.

The Heritage Foundation event frames nuclear deterrence as a policy priority that also has to be argued in public. Derek Morgan opens the rollout of Bob Peters's report, "A Nuclear Posture Review for the Next Administration, Building the Nuclear Arsenal of the 21st Century," and…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want the case for building a stronger U.S. nuclear arsenal, delivered from a Heritage Foundation report rollout?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Heard at Heritage