Comment archive

Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Surge in nuclear brinksmanship cannot regain Russia’s position of strength

The accumulation of setbacks in Russian economic, military, and foreign policies this spring has reached such a scale that the pattern of deadlocked war is beginning to shift toward the prospect of defeat

Friday, 6 Feb 2026
Lamentations for the New START Treaty are immaterial

The sum total of shortcomings has not only made the New START Treaty irrelevant but also turned it into a false promise.

Tuesday, 28 Oct 2025
Putin returns to brinksmanship after new U.S. sanctions

With hopes for a personal rapport with Trump fading, Putin has returned to nuclear brinkmanship.

Thursday, 19 Jun 2025
The US nuclear umbrella over Europe was a myth

Is it possible to imagine that one state would risk its own destruction in defence of another state?

Tuesday, 15 Oct 2024
Unwinnable Wars, Risks of Escalation, and the Nuclear Taboo

The announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize on October 11 coincided with a dangerous phase in two long wars — Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine — that are both poised for escalation. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Hiroshima ...

Thursday, 3 Oct 2024
Putin’s Nuclear Blackmail Goes Doctrinal

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced neither surprising nor radical revisions in Russia’s nuclear doctrine on September 25 (Kremlin.ru, September 25). He committed to revising the government’s vague document back in June. In the ensuing months, many “patriotic” pundits have advocated various drastic changes, from formalizing the “escalate-to-deescalate” proposition to breaking ...

Monday, 23 Sept 2024
Spectre of Escalation Over the Ukraine War

The first striking sentence of the Communist Manifesto issued in 1848 – A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism – has long become a historical anecdote. Even the leftist fringe cherishes no illusions about the unity of the proletariat. A different spectre, however, is looming over Europe – the ...

Friday, 10 Nov 2023
Russian Nuclear Blackmail Remains Ineffective

The degradation of Russian morale in the trenches of Avdiivka and Bakhmut has driven Moscow to try altering the course of the war with a revival of nuclear blackmail tactics. On October 30, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that Western attempts to inflict strategic defeat on Russia has increased ...

Tuesday, 21 Jun 2022
The Ukraine War and the Fate of the Earth

The stories that are told about the Russian invasion of Ukraine – the interpretations that are advanced about what the war means and why it went the way it did – are going to play a decisive role in determining nothing less than the fate of the earth. The dominant ...

Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022
Should Ukraine Have Kept Soviet Nuclear Weapons?

It is widely believed that Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons that it could have used to deter Russia from the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war of aggression launched last month. This is problematic for several reasons. Russia is using nuclear threats in order to deter NATO and ...