With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the horror
of nuclear war has returned to the forefront of public discourse after being
absent for decades, underscoring the breakdown of the Cold War-era system of
international security.
The military impasse has stoked concerns that
Moscow may turn to its nuclear arsenal in an effort to break the deadlock and
forward its attack.
The five recognised nuclear weapon states and
permanent members of the UN Security Council are Britain, China, France, and
Russia.
According to Camille Grand, a former NATO
deputy secretary-general, "it's the first time a nuclear power has used
its standing to wage a conventional war beneath the shadow cast by nuclear
weapons."
Asserting that the use of the weapons is still
"improbable," he told AFP, "One could have assumed that rogue
states would take such an attitude, but suddenly it's one of the two big
nuclear powers, a member of the UN Security Council."
The moral and strategic nuclear
"taboo" that developed during the 1945 US bombs of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki to conclude World War II is still in effect as of right now.
However, the rhetoric has greatly increased.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian TV
broadcasts have frequently advocated nuclear attacks on Western cities like
Paris or New York.
If President Vladimir Putin believed that
Russia's existence was under danger, the former ambassador warned that "he
will click the button."
The year's events have served as a painful
wake-up call for Europe, which spent decades enjoying the so-called Cold War
"peace dividend" in a condition of relative calm with regard to
nuclear security.
US President Joe Biden issued a global
"Armageddon" warning in October, across the Atlantic.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was
crucial in preserving the nuclear balance of power and was signed by the United
States and the Soviet Union in 1972, was abandoned by the United States in
2002.
In the years that followed, other significant
agreements were abandoned, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty, which Washington terminated in 2019 while blaming Russia for
noncompliance.
Grand stated, alluding to the Barack Obama-era
pact with Russia to limit the number of warheads, missiles, bombers, and
launchers, that "regarding disarmament, it's all in ruins, save from New
Start."
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