The ‘Cosmic Bluff’ Revisited: Extended Nuclear Deterrence in the US–Norway Alliance

What is the point of a nuclear umbrella? Conventional wisdom suggests that explicit nuclear security guarantees provide junior allies with credible security, facilitating regional stability and nuclear non-proliferation. Yet this is not the only possible reason to maintain a nuclear umbrella. Reassessing the history and politics of nuclear alignment through a case study of the US-Norway alliance, I find that nuclear umbrellas have endured, and can do so, in cases where both the security patron and client believe the arrangement to lack military credibility.