Uncharted Nuclear Age Risks:
What you need to know, what we are doing

Dear John,

Nearly 60 years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the very brink of nuclear war.

Now, Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his war of aggression against Ukraine and has issued fresh threats of nuclear weapons use, including in response to attacks on Ukrainian territory illegally seized by Russia.

The situation is unprecedented and extremely dangerous.

As I noted in a story last week in The Washington Post:  "What everyone needs to recognize is that this is one of, if not the most, severe episodes in which nuclear weapons might be used in decades. The consequences of even a so-called ‘limited nuclear war’ would be absolutely catastrophic.”

What Can Be Done?

We are pleased to see that President Biden and several other world leaders have pushed back in their remarks at the UN General Assembly. More states need to condemn Putin's nuclear threats as illegal, immoral, dangerous, and counterproductive.

The White House has also reportedly sent private warnings to Russia against using a nuclear weapon. Biden has also wisely refrained from making counter threats of nuclear weapons use. But so long as the war in Ukraine rages, we face a heightened risk of a NATO-Russia conflict and possibly nuclear weapons use.

Our entire Arms Control Association team has been pressing hard for months to advance measures that move us back from the nuclear brink. We're stressing the following points and urging the following steps:

• Global leaders should reinforce Biden's caution against Putin's flirtations with nuclear weapons use and condemn any and all nuclear threats. They should underscore why everyone loses, especially Russia, if Putin breaks the 77-year-long taboo against using nuclear weapons.
  
  
• Modern short-range, "tactical" nuclear weapons are devastating and indiscriminate killing machines. Notions that nuclear war can be "limited" are fantasy.
  
  
• Senior U.S. and Russian leaders need to be in regular dialogue to avoid miscommunication and miscalculation--a key lesson from the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  
  
• Even as the war in Ukraine continues, U.S. and Russian officials should resume talks on a new nuclear arms control framework before the last treaty limiting their deadly strategic nuclear arsenals expires in 2026.

(If you haven't done so yet, send a message to the White House showing your support for Biden's call for negotiations to further reduce the Russian and U.S. arsenals.)

We're also doing more behind the scenes, including briefing Congressional staff on the situation, engaging in private discussions with senior U.S. and Russian officials, organizing consultations with independent U.S., European, and Russia arms control experts, and outlining options for risk reduction and disarmament.

You can count on us to continue working overtime during these difficult times. And you can always find more news and analysis in each monthly issue of Arms Control Today and through our Nuclear Disarmament Monitor e-newsletter.

Please write us at [email protected] and let us know if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, and please consider becoming a monthly sustaining donor.

Together, we must push back on Putin's nuclear threats and strengthen the guardrails against nuclear catastrophe.

Onward,

Daryl G. Kimball
Executive Director

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