The presence of colossal stockpiles of nuclear weapons in two or three great military powers reduces the likelihood of a general war in its traditional sense
The presence of colossal stockpiles of nuclear weapons in two or three great military powers reduces the likelihood of a general war ...
... unnoticed for another decade. Everything changed on March 23, 1983, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to develop a missile defense system with space-based components (“Star Wars”), which aimed to render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete”. This proposal translated into a massive scientific and technical effort as well as testing of a wide range of weapons and command-control-information systems.
So long as the results of the program were unclear,...
... dangerous due to the involvement of non-nuclear-weapon states in the preparation and planning of US nuclear operations. The essence of “extended deterrence” is changing: “nuclear umbrellas” are being replaced by supporting the possible use of nuclear weapons by non-nuclear forces. This trend is particularly evident in the interaction between Washington and Seoul, which established the Nuclear Consultative Group and approved (on the margins of the NATO summit) the Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence ...
... in this area.
Third, that confrontation was between two global adversaries and the blocs led by them. China, of course, was also a factor, but to a greater extent for Moscow, and the dynamics there were different. As far as we can tell, battlefield nuclear weapons enjoyed more attention. At the same time, the geography of U.S. and Soviet troop deployments and the degree of allied involvement was also different.
Fourth, China is not interested in doing anything about its INF-range weapons, let alone ...
... belief that every conceivable reason for nuclear war has disappeared. A new era of globalisation, with its emphasis on economic cooperation, has dawned. For the first time in history, the hegemony of a single power, the US, has been established globally. Nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the great powers - though fewer than at the height of the confrontation - but the fear of their use has faded. More dangerously, a new generation of politicians has come to the fore, unburdened either by the memory ...
... for a first nuclear strike during the period of an escalation threat could be estimated at 73 carriers and 455 charges within 24 hours, and 121 carriers or 1,139 charges within 30 days. Of particular significance are the U.S. plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, including medium-range missiles, which further increases their strike potential. In this context, the development of missile defense as a clear counterforce poses a direct threat to the entire world.
Global plans with minimum justification
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Dmitry Trenin:
In fact, the weakening of the nuclear nonproliferation regime was the result of the collapse of the USSR and the inability of the Russian Federation (or some another power) to maintain military and political balance in the world. Thus, nuclear weapons appeared in India, Pakistan, and the DPRK; Iran relaunched its nuclear program; Iraq and Libya carried out some activities in the same direction. In other words, the establishment of the US-centered world order forced the countries that ...
... will enter a new cold war, but it is more appropriate to ask whether the world will enter a new hot war, because in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine armed conflict millions of soldiers have been fighting for two years, using almost all heavy weapons except nuclear weapons such as airplanes, tanks, artillery, warships, missiles, etc., and the U.S. and the NATO countries are already nearly directly involved. Under such circumstances, the talk about whether there will be a new cold war seems too pale. Some ...
... Militarization of Outer Space
The media event in the James Brady Press Briefing Room heightened the suspense and fueled public interest in the already not so new, but still exciting, topic of "star wars." Indeed, the potential deployment of nuclear weapons in space could lead to a significant shift in the global balance of military power. Disabling an adversary's satellites could be achieved by simply blinding them with radiation from a remote nuclear explosion.
However, such actions would ...
... mention the unceasing territorial disputes that occasionally result in border clashes.
That being said, it is no wonder that non-traditional security challenges in the region have been extensively discussed as of late. The
pronounced relationship
between nuclear weapons and conventional forces is merely one instance that demonstrates the relevance of the nuclear factor in this context. Nonetheless, out of all types of WMD (weapons of mass destruction), nuclear warfare can hardly be omitted from the system ...