With one of the world’s nuclear powers currently in a war with Ukraine, there is concern of a rising risk of nuclear weapons being used on the battlefield.
Especially if Russian president Vladimir Putin believes he’s losing the war.
“For him to be seen as losing to country like Ukraine would be unacceptable,” said Mariana Budjeryn, a research associate in the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. “And the fear is that in that case, he might resort to something like this, and the choice of target would be secondary.”
Budjeryn was one of three panelists in a session titled “A New Nuclear Age” during the seventh nonpartisan foreign policy conference at the Hamilton Lugar School Wednesday.
She was joined by Sarah Bidgood, the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program Director, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman.
All three described the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. as a “mini nuclear attack” compared to the devastation a full-scale nuclear attack would have today.
Countryman noted there are other weapons of mass destruction at the Russia’s disposal that could be used in Ukraine.
“A higher likelihood event is the use of chemical weapons by the Russian army,” Countryman said. “Not because they are very effective in the battlefield sense, but because Russia has demonstrated its capability of using those weapons against its own citizens.”
The panel was moderated by CEO and Founder of Zivvy Media, Elise Labott and co-sponsored by the IU Center for the Study of the Middle East and the Inner Asian Uralic National Resource Center.
