Blog Post #2_Will Scott

In the realm of international relations, the past week has been one that will go down in history. On February twenty-third Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale military invasion on their neighboring country, Ukraine. Now, Putin has put his nuclear arsenal on high alert and I believe that it is to deter the west and NATO from making any military moves against Russia, but the chance of Russia using these nuclear weapons is slim to none, and there are two reasons why I believe this. First of all, there is the idea of mutually assured destruction of the countries that would be engaged in the nuclear conflict, which, in this case, would be Russia and NATO allies because both the NATO alliance and Russia have second-strike capabilities. The second reason is that NATO, with the United States, has supremacy in the nuclear triad of Bombers, Land-based missiles, Submarine-based missiles.

If Russia were to launch a nuclear missile against western countries, the world would be engulfed in a nuclear winter, and most of humanity would perish in the event of this. Something that must be taken into consideration is that NATO is first and foremost a nuclear alliance that was established in 1949 to ward off any Russian nuclear strike. In class, we learned about the theory of mutually assured destruction which states that nuclear weapons are so destructive that any rational leader, even “mad men”, will be forced to think about the consequences of their use. Many people would consider Vladimir Putin a mad man seeing as though this is not the first time that he has decided to invade a sovereign nation, but Putin knows that the United States and NATO would wipe the Russian army out if he were to launch an attack on the alliance. Despite Russia statistically having more nuclear weapons than NATO, NATO still has a second-strike capability which throws the chance of nuclear war out the window. Putin has “heightened the alert” of his nuclear weapons just to deter NATO from aiding Ukraine with actual military personnel. 

Secondly, NATO is the most powerful military alliance in the world and the United States alone has the strongest, most sophisticated military in the world as well. When it comes to the United States versus Russia, the United States has supremacy in the terms of having a nuclear triad. The United States is far more advanced with the technology that they have within their nuclear arsenal. Their land-based missiles, bombers, and submarine-based missiles are far more accurate, effective, and stealthier than Russia’s fleet which would deter Russia from launching a nuclear attack against the west. This being said, I firmly stand with my belief that Russia’s heightened nuclear state is purely Putin trying to flex what military strength that he and his country have, and he knows full well that a nuclear war between NATO and Russia would result in the end of humanity with no winners whatsoever.