Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-14 is pictured during its second test-fire in this undated picture provided by KCNA in Pyongyang on July 29, 2017. KCNA via Reuters
Reuters: Risk of nuclear war now highest since WW2, U.N. arms research chief says
GENEVA (Reuters) - The risk of nuclear weapons being used is at its highest since World War Two, a senior U.N. security expert said on Tuesday, calling it an “urgent” issue that the world should take more seriously.
Renata Dwan, director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said all states with nuclear weapons have nuclear modernization programs underway and the arms control landscape is changing, partly due to strategic competition between China and the United States.
Traditional arms control arrangements are also being eroded by the emergence of new types of war, with increasing prevalence of armed groups and private sector forces and new technologies that blurred the line between offence and defense, she told reporters in Geneva.
With disarmament talks stalemated for the past two decades, 122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, partly out of frustration and partly out of a recognition of the risks, she said.
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WNU Editor: Being one who lived through the Cold War, today's risk of a nuclear war do not come even close to what was the situation at that time. So no .... risk of nuclear war now is not the highest since WW2.
5 comments:
Disagree with you on your assessment. During the first cold war there were open lines of dialogue between the great powers and the possibility of detente was something that US politicians had to at least remain open to or they'd get skewered by the media. Even during the cuban missile crisis the president was allowed to speak to his russian counterpart without being called a traitor.
In the new cold war all lines of contact between the powers have been diminished to informal back-channels between the commanders operating in Syria and the odd meeting with low level officials that happen maybe a couple times per year. We have multiple proxy wars with Russia and America eyeball to eyeball and we're only one accident away from things spiraling out of control.
If it seems like this cold war is less intense than the previous one it's because the media organizations who kept you informed on it in the past have since been co-opted and are often used to further the divide rather than shine a light on it.
Today the global elites count on ignorance among the young to peddle their ideology.
Cuban Missile Crisis?
Russian - China war in Siberia?
1973 Arab Israeli war?
Those were nuclear alerts with nuclear forces in the field.
Nonsense that today is the worst nuclear war threat.
Did someone give you the impression that we packed up our nukes and put them in storage after 1989?
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I would say that the risk is definitely much greater now than in Cold War 1 for several reasons.
1.)During Cold War 1 the two sides respected each other. Perhaps this was due to the shared history that both sides had in fighting and defeating Nazi Germany in World War 2 coupled with the realization by our side that Soviet Russia was the indispensable nation in defeating Nazi Germany. Today not only do the Russians not respect us. They appear to hold us in utter contempt. This lack of mutual respect IMHO makes a conflict that will escalate to a Russian nuclear attack more likely now in Cold War 2 than in Cold War 1.
2.)Dialogue with Russian leadership was encouraged and even expected during Cold War 1. Today to even attempt diplomacy with the Russians one risks being branded a traitor and having the power of the US federal government unleashed against them to try and destroy them. This lack of dialogue and open communication channels makes it more likely that a misunderstanding will be more likely to result in a nuclear weapons launch now than in Cold War 1. Our leadership has essentially entered into insanity in this regard.
3.)During Cold War 1 the launch of nuclear weapons was considered MAD as in mutually assured destruction. Today reports indicate that Russia believes they can win a nuclear war with the US which may make them more likely to attack. Russia has upgraded and expanded its nuclear arsenal while the US had allowed its nuclear deterrent to decay to the point that candidate Trump rightly questioned during the campaign whether or not our nuclear arsenal would actually work if we needed it. After he was elected he said the first thing he did was to correct this problem. I hope and pray he really did this.
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