“From the practical and strategic point of view it doesn’t make any sense for Russia to deploy nuclear weapons,” he says. Most countries unilaterally draw a red line at Russia’s threats of using nuclear weapons, Calderon Martinez says, because of the fear of escalation. Since the world saw the scale of destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the international community considers the use of nuclear weapons or nuclear materials in warfare a taboo. But the perceived need for nuclear weapons is increasing among certain countries, Calderon Martinez says. Some countries that don’t have nuclear weapons, like Germany, don’t view nuclear weapons as necessary for their security, Calderon Martinez says, while other countries like South Africa, Brazil and Ukraine decided to get rid of their nuclear capabilities altogether. “It really does depend on the security calculations of individual states, and how they perceive their security.” Those countries consider nuclear weapons indispensable for their security, Calderon Martinez says. These countries are the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Nine countries currently possess close to 13,000 nuclear weapons, which is significantly less than about 60,000 weapons during the Cold War. “A consensus across international relations that if there was ever something like a ‘nuclear holocaust’, it would be caused by, basically, an accident, a miscommunication, or a miscalculation.” He does not believe that a disarmament is possible in the current geopolitical situation. No one wants to give up nuclear weapons first and put themselves into a weaker position, says Pablo Calderon Martinez, assistant professor in politics and international relations at Northeastern University–London. The world held its collective breath 60 years ago this month when the United States and the Soviet Union squared off over Soviet missiles in Cuba.Īnd now, Biden raises deep concern as Putin threatens the use of nuclear weapons while casting the war in Ukraine as a geopolitical battle of Russia against the West. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since (President) Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden told a crowd at a fundraiser Thursday night. President Joe Biden warned last week that the war in Ukraine could devolve into a nuclear “armageddon” after Russian President Vladimir Putin renewed his nuclear threats.
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