Does the expiration of the New START Treaty between Russia and the United States, the last treaty between the two principal nuclear powers aimed at limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, represent an unprecedented opportunity for major powers on the one hand and for those enter to enter a nuclear race on the other, especially as fate may introduce it into the terrifying trifecta: quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and microchips?
It seems very clear that the world is rapidly veering toward what we might call the “third nuclear age.”
The Cold War was considered the first timeframe in which nuclear armament escalated sharply, as atomic bombs and missiles stood at the heart of geopolitical and military debates and rivalries that raged for nearly four decades.
The second nuclear age was the post-Cold War period, when great-power rivalries receded into the background of international politics, and there was a certain optimism around sparing the world the fate of a nuclear holocaust, which had long hung like the “sword of Damocles” over the heads and necks of human beings after the Second World War.
Today, one can say with certainty that we are in the third nuclear age. One fears that it will not resemble the first age of the Cold War but surpass it, especially amid the reckless threats by Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons, China’s efforts to reinforce its nuclear capabilities, and the United States’ acquisition of new and more lethal nuclear weapons.
Even more terrifyingly, nuclear proliferation has gone beyond the nine states that already possess atomic weapons to include many middle powers seeking to find a place and position for themselves on the changing map of international balances. Here, Iran shows a clear desire to follow North Korea’s path, and who knows what tomorrow may bring.
Perhaps the most dangerous development is Moscow and Washington’s failure to reach a new agreement that opens the door to something more perilous than states stockpiling more weapons of mass destruction: weaving together the pragmatic interests of major global corporations, especially those that produce nuclear weapons.
In late April of last year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), in its annual report titled “Don’t Bank on the Bomb,” warned that global investment in the production of nuclear weapons had jumped to $700 billion. The report shows that 301 entities, including banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, have financed or invested in companies involved in producing nuclear weapons. This number of investors represents a 15 percent increase compared with the previous year, after years of decline.
Is humanity marching backward, or is it falling down into the nuclear abyss?
One can look at Brzezinski’s chessboard from Europe, which has become anxious by day and sleepless by night. Russophobia prevails amid fears that Europe may one day wake up to find itself in a nuclear conflict with the tsar and his deadly nuclear weapons. On the other hand, it fears that President Trump may withdraw his nuclear umbrella from Europe.
It seems very clear that a European nuclear partnership, built on Britain, France, and Germany, is on its way, and that it will be equipped with more modern and innovative atomic tools.
Do the Europeans truly have reason to fear a nuclear winter, especially from Russia?
Recently, the Germans discovered a network of nuclear missile silos that Russia has been quietly working on, far from NATO’s eyes, as part of a secret project deep in the sea north of Russia near the Arctic, “Scythian.” On May 12 of last year, President Putin announced that Russia would put its 200-ton Sarmat strategic nuclear missile into service by the end of this year. The missile has a range of 35,000 kilometers and can carry 15 nuclear warheads.
The Chinese are frightening everyone with their recent tests its pursuit of 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, as though global power cannot be complete without nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, the US is both openly and secretly seeking to modernize its nuclear arsenal. It is enough to point to the B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb that causes around 24 times more damage than the Hiroshima bomb.
Investment companies are raising a frightening slogan: “no ethics” in the face of the “threats of nuclear death.” This means that the third nuclear age will inevitably be more dangerous than the two that preceded it, and more is coming.
