{"id":24722,"date":"2023-03-14T11:47:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/?p=24722"},"modified":"2023-03-16T03:03:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T07:03:26","slug":"tempting-armageddon-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/tempting-armageddon-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"oped: We Are Tempting Armageddon in Ukraine – Aviation Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Carl Conetta, appearing 07 Mar 2023 in Aviation Week<\/a><\/em>. Link to original oped: HTML<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Russian threats of nuclear use have grown increasingly serious as Ukrainian forces, buttressed by Western support, have pressed forward against the Russian front lines in Ukraine. In his Feb. 21 address to the Russian Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly claimed \u201can existential threat,\u201d citing U.S. officials\u2019 talk of seeking Russia\u2019s strategic defeat. Putin also suspended participation in the New START arms control treaty and directed the military to prepare to resume nuclear testing, asserting that Washington was doing the same. This may reveal his next move.<\/p>\n

Along its present course, the Ukraine conflict likely will culminate in a U.S.-Russia standoff more serious than the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Washington contends that Putin\u2019s nuclear threats ring hollow and that U.S. counter-threats are a sufficient deterrent. This is a grave miscalculation. Washington misconstrues Moscow\u2019s perspective in several ways that obscure the risk of nuclear use.<\/p>\n

First, Moscow sees the current conflict as a strategic showdown with the West that has profound implications for Russia\u2019s global sway. Washington sees this as well, but contends that Moscow is caught in a corner without practicable exit options. This is wrong.<\/p>\n

Second, as Moscow sees it, the advance of NATO-enabled Ukrainian forces presages the advance of NATO itself. For 30 years, Moscow has called the eastward expansion of NATO a critical security concern. For just as long, NATO leaders have denied it. What matters, however, is whether Moscow is sincere in fearing the leverage that NATO might gain by sitting forces on Russia\u2019s long border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Third, many Western observers suggest that Moscow will not risk the U.S. retaliation that a resort to nuclear weapons would bring\u2014as though Moscow has no option for counter-retaliation. Putin reasonably might wonder: Is Washington ready to sacrifice Boston for, say, the Ukrainian 92nd Mechanized Brigade? For that matter, how much risk are the NATO allies willing to assume? Their commitment to \u201cstaying the course\u201d in Ukraine is the target of Putin\u2019s threats.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the Ukraine war will profoundly affect Russia\u2019s stature and influence as a global power. It also will affect the nation\u2019s internal stability. The conflict asks: Can Russia win even a local war against an adversary supported by the West? Does Russia\u2019s massive nuclear arsenal count for much in the contest of powers? In this light, the conflict should count at minimum as a \u201cnear-existential\u201d crisis for Moscow\u2014\u201ccheck,\u201d if not quite \u201ccheckmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing conventional defeat, Moscow would have a variety of nuclear options. The least likely of these is garnering the most attention in the West: an attack on Ukrainian forces using so-called \u201ctactical\u201d nuclear systems. Such weapons would not be effective enough to blunt a major Ukrainian offensive unless used in numbers that would also put Russian troops and areas at risk. Moreover, such action would earn global reprobation and invite direct U.S. intervention\u2014Washington has pledged as much. Putin still has other, more likely options.<\/p>\n

In the case of a decisive Ukrainian drive on the Russian border or Crimea, Moscow could signal dramatic escalation by putting its strategic nuclear forces on high alert and deploying some tactical nuclear units in an ostentatious fashion. The aim would be to break the Western consensus for war and prompt a cease-fire and negotiations. An additional step, although unlikely, would be a nuclear \u201cwarning blast\u201d over or under Russian territory. Warning shots are entirely consonant with Russian nuclear doctrine. An underground test of a strategic weapon in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty would suffice, and it would accord with Putin\u2019s recent statement. This would be an attempt at extended deterrence by intimidation, which also would involve any obvious increases in nuclear force readiness.<\/p>\n

In the case of a marked rise in Russian nuclear activity, Washington would necessarily raise the alert level of U.S. nuclear forces. The result would be a confrontation more dangerous than the 1962 Cuban missile standoff\u2014more dangerous due to the context of the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

An early, deadly use of nuclear weapons remains very unlikely. Realistically, it is crisis instability that poses the greatest danger of nuclear cataclysm. Any situation that prompts a bilateral resort to peak levels of nuclear readiness\u2014a hair-trigger standoff\u2014greatly increases the likelihood of accidental or mistaken nuclear use.<\/p>\n

The experience of the Cuban missile crisis remains relevant to managing the current confrontation wisely. Reflecting on the crisis, McGeorge Bundy, who was President John F. Kennedy\u2019s national security advisor during it, estimated that the crisis had involved a rather modest one-in-100 risk of nuclear war. Nonetheless, Bundy observed: \u201cIn this apocalyptic matter, the risk can be very small indeed and still much too large for comfort.\u201d Foremost in Washington\u2019s planning about the Ukraine conflict should be Bundy\u2019s observation that even a very limited nuclear exchange \u201cwould be a disaster beyond history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Conetta <\/em>is a researcher at the Project on Defense Alternatives and author of Tempting Armageddon: The Likelihood of Russian Nuclear Use Is Misconstrued in Western Policy.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carl Conetta, appearing 07 Mar 2023 in Aviation Week. 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