ARE WE NOW PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE
We all know that when a war breaks out it does not take much time for it to escalate. The continued presence of US and Russian nonstrategic weapons on the European continent already poses a serious risk of “accidental use, miscalculation, and inadvertent escalation. With Europe reduced to sanction spectator status in the face of a heightened possibility of a nuclear detonation on its doorstep. Even a cooperative European defense could do little to prevent a retaliatory nuclear response. Imagine a scenario – as in the past – in which Moscow misinterprets a conventional missile flight as nuclear. Nuclear risk reduction is a common security interest of all states – one that transcends alliances and umbrellas, and even the geopolitical circumstances that have stagnated arms control and disarmament. Putin knows that a nuclear war would not only be the end it would also ensure the destruction of Russia. At a time when the nuclear risk on the continent is acute, Eu...