Nuclear Weapons

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given orders to increase the alert level of Russia’s nuclear forces and has made veiled nuclear threats. The blatant aggression against Ukraine has shocked Europe and the world. The war is a tragedy for Ukraine. It also exposes…

ANU’s Professor John Blaxland says Vladimir Putin – amid the pushback from Ukrainians – feels he has to “up the ante” by threatening to use nuclear weapons. Professor Blaxland told Sky News host Rita Panahi he thinks this threat should be taken “very seriously”. “There’s no question that we’ve seen…

Michael Ignatieff scares me. Ignatieff was leader of the federal Liberal party from 2009 to 2011. He led his party to its worst performance ever in the 2011 election. Before and after his foray into politics he has led a more successful career as a writer and public intellectual.  In…

TURN AND FACE THE CHANGE The flood crisis is one of the most extreme disasters in Australia’s history — that’s according to a report from the Climate Council, who say climate change is supercharging rain bombs, flash floods and destruction, The West ($) reports. The council says climate change is…

The debate around nuclear weapons has been dormant in recent years.. Now the issue is back at the forefront of global consciousness. A photo of the Ukrainian flag. Credit: Max Kukurudziak / unsplash The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought many issues to the forefront. Issues which for many, including…

GENEVA: Russian President Vladimir Putin is using nuclear “blackmail” to keep the international community from interfering in his Ukraine invasion, the head of the Nobel prize-winning group ICAN said. “This is one of the scariest moments really when it comes to nuclear weapons,“ Beatrice Fihn, who leads the International Campaign…

Updated 4 days ago · Published on 9 Mar 2022 10:00AM · Russia's President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to use nuclear weapons in his invasion of Ukraine, says an expert, but 'it is not ruled out'. – EPA pic, March 9, 2022. RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin is using nuclear “blackmail”…

Ukrainian warning of Russian ‘blackmail’ Russian President Vladimir Putin is using nuclear weapons as blackmail against the West following his invasion of Ukrainian, according to the country's former deputy prime minister. Oleh Rybachuk said the situation in Ukraine was heartbreaking but sanctions weren't enough of a deterrent for advancing Russian…

Senator Angus King (I-ME) said Monday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that NATO implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be “dangerous” because the Russian would see it as an escalation and potentially use nuclear weapons in response. King said, “I think a no-fly zone is dangerous because it would…

As the Cold War sputtered to an end and the Soviet Union imploded, American policymakers were concerned with one thing above all others: securing the giant arsenal of nuclear weapons that Moscow controlled. The Bush administration’s biggest fear was that control over the stockpile would become a casualty of a…