Nuclear Weapons in a Multi-Polar Authoritarian World: Assessing the Challenges
09/18/2024
By Robbin Laird
The rise of the 21st century authoritarian states and movements has driven change in the global situation to which the liberal democracies have responded incoherently. And conflicts within our societies are providing significant rifts and distractions which provide enhanced opportunities for multi-polar authoritarianism to further enhance their position.
The ”second nuclear age” of Paul Bracken has blended with this strategic shift in which authoritarian powers are increasingly significant and active in the reshaping of the global order. That is to say, nuclear weapons in a bi-polar world are part of a very different system of managing the nuclear threat than is the case in a multi-polar authoritarian world.
I recently discussed these shifts with my friend and colleague Paul Bracken, a long-time analyst of nuclear weapons. We first met when he was working for Hermann Kahn, and I was working for Zbig Brzezinski. The world at that time was threatening enough, but now we face a whole new ball game without the rules book of how to play the game being clearly established.
We started by discussing reports that Ukraine which now occupies Russian territory would be given longer range strike weapons by the West and the authority to use them against targets on Russian soil. In the Cold War days, such decisions would always be considered in a nuclear weapons calculus. In this case, it does not appear to be the case.
https://defense.info/featured-story/2024/09/nuclear-weapons-in-a-multi-polar-authoritarian-world-assessing-the-challenges/
