The deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would increase nuclear risks and undermine key nonproliferation norms, but it would not alter the strategic balance in Europe. For Russia, sharing nuclear weapons with Belarus might well backfire politically. NATO countries should therefore resist the impulse to up the nuclear ante.
In the past, concerns about a nuclear attack were mainly in regard to the leaders of rogue states acquiring nuclear weapons. The war in Ukraine has shifted this threat to the leader of a superpower waging a war with thousands of known nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert. Tarja Cronberg explores the ways in which control over nuclear weapons can be taken out of the hands of world leaders, and how to mitigate the risk of a nuclear war triggered by the human error of powerful individuals.
The significance of NATO’s June Summit is in the adoption of a tougher and more robust approach to security through a renewed emphasis on defence, deterrence and, whenever necessary, confrontation, write ELN Senior Associate Fellows Nicholas Williams and Simon Lunn.
NATO leaders are gathering at their annual summit meeting this week to discuss important issues facing the Alliance. The Madrid Summit will address the Alliance’s response to the war in Ukraine, defence spending, climate security, and NATO’s strategic direction for the next decade. Here, we share some materials and analysis from the Network on these core issues.
Senior Network Member and President-Designate of the First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Alexander Kmentt speaks to the ELN ahead of the Vienna meeting
Members of the ELN Network share their views on deterrence and diplomacy