As stated in a previous question, the main political entity of my world, the United Commonwealth, is protected by a combined Army and Navy, made up of personnel from all nations, and funded by all nations.
However, one topic I am still working out is the control of nuclear weaponry. While the Army/Navy split of responsibility is fairly straightforward, what I haven't fully figured out is how the authority to use these strategic nuclear weapons would be shared. To make it slightly easier, the United Commonwealth operates under a 'No First Strike' policy, so no one will be starting any nuclear wars, at least within the U.C.
However, this still leaves the use of nuclear weapons in a defensive way, as retaliation and deterrence.
Current Solutions
I've worked out 2 possible solutions to this issue.
Have control of nuclear weapons be surrendered to groups of national governments on each individual planet. Since there are 12 planets, that would mean 12 separate groups, each with control over nuclear weapons use and deterrence, and whether or not to even have them on their planet.
Have control of nuclear weapons be surrendered to the United Commonwealth itself, which is to say, have it be shared in some way among the U.C. Parliament, made up of elected representatives from member states, the Commission of the U.C., which carries out policy, and the Council of Nations, which is comprised of member nation's Heads of State/Government.
Which of these two would be the 'superior' method, or would be more likely to exist, or are both of these impossible. If so, what would be another way of accomplishing Joint Control, preferably without anyone just saying that the whole idea is impossible, or that the the UC should just split itself up.
Background Information:
- Nuclear weapons are primarily missile based, on both ground launchers and silos, and nuclear submarines
- Nuclear weapons technology itself is more or less open source, but the qeapons themselves are entirely reserved for world power nations, such as the U.C. and it's main rival, the People's Union of Bothnia.
- The U.C is a made up entirely of democratic, liberal countries, while the P.U.B is a USSR style autocracy.
- The discovery of nuclear weapons tech. was a result of joint U.C. research, which is why its control has to be shared.