English
By George Koukakis, Senior Researcher KEDISA
The creation of the atomic bomb brought historical changes in the way war is fought, as for the first time a state could easily cause major casualties to another using a single strike. Since then, the United States and Russia began an arms race in order to gain nuclear superiority, leading to the period known as the Cold War. Even though nuclear weapons have never been used in a war since 1945 when the United States bombed Japan, the recent nuclear rhetoric of Russia against the West during the on-going war in Ukraine has resulted in the revival of the nuclear threat, as many analysts express the fear that several actors can and will use nuclear weapons in the context of their conflict with other actors, a hypothesis that if becomes reality will have disastrous consequences for mankind. The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate the strategy of the contemporary nuclear actors as it is described in several strategic documents, in order to assess the prospect of a nuclear World War III in the context of the major on-going conflicts.
