The nuclear threat has changed to more likely constitute smaller-scale attacks and the Pentagon is working to integrate conventional and nuclear deterrence strategies in Europe and Asia to better prepare for low-end conflict, according to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. "The most likely use of nuclear weapons today is not the massive 'nuclear exchange' of the classic Cold War type, but rather the unwise resort to smaller but still unprecedentedly terrible attacks, for example by Russia or North Korea, to try to coerce a conventionally superior opponent to back off or abandon an ally during a crisis," Carter said on 26 September at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
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