... move “not one inch” eastward. But no treaties were signed—or, indeed, requested by the Kremlin—to that effect. So, when Russia, as the USSR’s successor, three or four years later began protesting, NATO enlargement into the former Warsaw Pact (the ... ... the lack of binding agreements, usually spoke of plans to establish a fundamentally new atmosphere of trust within a ‘new world order.’ Indeed, if one had materialized, no specific agreements on NATO non-expansion would have been needed. But things ...
... decisive phase with the outbreak of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, and Palestine. These conflicts, directly linked to the great powers, are painful and destructive, but implicitly motivated by the need to resolve the contradictions impeding the new world order’s formation.
In the fall of 2024, such an understanding is in need of correction.
First,
regarding nuclear weapons. It is not that they have ceased to function as a deterrent. Their possession by Russia, China—and to some extent Israel—does deter those states’ adversaries from actions that they would likely otherwise take to achieve success. But the Ukraine conflict has forced the world to reconsider the limits of nuclear deterrence, i.e....