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US security expert says chances of Putin using nuclear weapon are “small”
During his visit to Canberra, the chief executive of the Washington-based thinktank the Center for a New American Security, Richard Fontaine, weighed in on the US president, Joe Biden’s recent comments that the world could face “Armageddon” if Russia’s Vladimir Putin uses a tactical nuclear weapon to try to win the war in Ukraine.
I seriously doubt that anybody handed the president a set of written talking points that had the word Armageddon on it. On the other hand, there is very grave concern about the rattling of the nuclear sabre, because the chances, I think, of Russia using even a tactical nuclear weapon are small, but they’re higher than they were. And they’re probably higher than any time since 1962 with the [Cuban] missile crisis.
The use of nuclear weapons is one of these low probability, extremely high consequence events. So even if the probability is relatively small, the consequences would be so grave. If they were to do this, we would wake up in a different world the next day.
Yes, absolutely. Every country really has a dog in this fight, because what we’re talking about here is a violation of the fundamental rules of international order, the cardinal element of which is the prohibition against territorial conquest by force. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing here.
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