Will Putin Start a Nuclear War?

Nuclear annihilation is closer than you might think

The Cold War was responsible for an influx of fears related to the dangers of nuclear war. Political events, films, and books filled the imaginations of everyday viewers of what might come to be if the USSR and the USA, the two major superpowers in the middle of an arms race, collide.

With Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, this threat became once again, a prescient reality for many.

But, we should ask ourselves, is this only a threat? Or is this a sign of things to come?

Photo by Tom Roberts on Unsplash

“There is not going to be any winner of the next war. No one who is a rational man can possibly desire to see hostilities break out, particularly between the major powers which are equipped with nuclear weapons.” — John F. Kennedy

Let me be clear from the outset here, as someone who has written about nuclear war and the existential risk it poses, there is no way for certain to know if Putin will risk it — and, in effect, risk our collective annihilation.