If Putin Goes Nuclear, How Should the United States Respond?
Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters
English - October 10, 2022 02:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 288 ratingsNews Commentary News Politics development foreign interviews news rights unitednations world Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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These are perilous moments in the conflict in Ukraine. In response to the Ukrainian military's stunning gains in recent weeks, Putin is escalating. He has enacted a military mobilization within Russia and is once again threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
How seriously should we take these nuclear threats? In what scenarios and circumstances might Putin actually use a nuclear weapon. And how should the Biden administration and NATO respond if, indeed, Putin goes nuclear? We put these questions and more to Jon Wolfsthal a longtime nuclear policy professional and aid to then Vice President Joe Biden who currently serves as senior advisor to Global Zero and as a board member for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.