Have nuclear arms had their day?

columnist

Since then the world has come perilously close to nuclear war a number of times and the risk of accidental war has been drawn attention to not just by the peaceniks but by such illustrious Cold War warriors as senior arms advisors to President Ronald Reagan, Fred Ikle and Paul Nitze. The post-Cold War era is arguably even more dangerous than the actual one. From conversations I’ve had in both Moscow and Washington it’s quite clear that the new up-coming hawks who have now slipped into the shoes of the old Cold War warriors do not have the latter’s experience in realpolitik and nuclear gamesmanship and are making mistakes the old guard never would. They haven’t lived through the days of Hiroshima, the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Indeed, their life experience has been perhaps too positive- they have had a ringside seat at the end of the Cold War and thus are tempted towards hubris rather than caution. Why else would President Bill Clinton and all his successors have so provoked Russia by expanding Nato’s borders right up to Russia’s, despite solemn promises not to made in 1990 to Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, by President George W. Bush?