Emmanuel Macron recently made clear that he views France’s nuclear deterrent as an essential part of European defense, while Russia engaged in another round of nuclear saber-rattling in order to dissuade further Western support to Kyiv. All of this raises a fundamental question: Are nuclear weapons actually an effective deterrent?
Last week, at the ISA’s annual conference, a roundtable discussion examined how much the nuclear taboo had been weakened by the war in Ukraine and Russia’s nuclear brinksmanship. While the answer was varied, the scholars agreed on one thing: Putin’s threats themselves are not a great barometer of any change in the nuclear taboo.
Nuclear brinksmanship has been on the rise in recent years, even as anti-nuclear sentiment has never been higher. That makes this moment in the U.S. a good one for reckoning and reassessment. Political science scholarship can guide journalistic efforts in refocusing the national conversation on the perils of a nuclear world.
