Abstract: The United States’ shift from denying to accepting that the laws of armed conflict (LOAC) applies to nuclear weapons legalized nuclear planning and reshaped its posture around distinction and proportionality. However, nuclear deterrence “creeds” continue to influence how the United States interprets these principles, allowing controversial targets to remain permissible.

Scott D. Sagan is Co-Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, and the Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He also serves as Co-Chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on International Security Studies. Before joining the Stanford faculty, Sagan was a lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University and served as special assistant to the director of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.

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