LONDON — The world is entering a “third nuclear age,” British military leaders have warned, with doomsday weapons once again spreading across the globe and international agreements governing them crumbling.
Britain’s Chief of Defense Staff, Admiral Tony Radakkin, on Wednesday accused Russia of making “barbaric threats of tactical nuclear use” and “mock attacks against NATO countries”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened the United States and Western countries with nuclear retaliation over aid to Ukraine, where his military has been fighting since the invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
But the rattle of the Kremlin’s sabers was not the only reason for Radakin’s warning in a speech at the Royal Institute of Integrated Services think tank in London.
He also noted that China, along with Russia, is rapidly developing to become a serious nuclear competitor after the United States. Meanwhile, North Korea and Iran are raising their terms in the wake of the collapse of the non-proliferation agreement that sought to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons after the end of the Cold War, he said.
“The world has changed. Global powers are changing and the Third Nuclear Age is upon us,” Radakin said. He described this new era as “overall more complex” than before, with “multiple dilemmas occurring simultaneously, the proliferation of nuclear and destructive technologies, and the almost complete absence of previous security architectures.” “It is defined by what it is.”
The first nuclear age, as defined by Radakin, was the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union accumulated vast arsenals and were “governed by the risk of uncontrollable escalation and the logic of deterrence.” The second era, he said, began after the fall of the Berlin Wall and was an era of “disarmament efforts and counterproliferation,” as these nuclear-armed states expressed a desire to withdraw from this apocalyptic confrontation.
Those days are over, he said, replaced by the growing arsenals of established powers, development by new start-ups and the rolling back of international agreements.
As a reminder, the admiral told NATO countries that “there is only a remote possibility of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia.”
Alex Younger, former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6, was also joined by Richard Engel, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, and Yalda Hakim, chief world news presenter for NBC News’ UK partner Sky News. , expressed a similar opinion on the podcast “The World.”
“I don’t think President Putin intends to launch nuclear weapons at us,” Younger said, but added that doesn’t mean nuclear watchdogs aren’t alarmed by the current direction.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading organization that tracks weapons around the world, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world continues to gradually decline from around 12,000 today. But that’s only because the United States and Russia are dismantling retired warheads, the newspaper said.
In its 2024 yearbook, SIPRI said there were 2,100 nuclear warheads “on high operational alert,” about 100 more than last year. SIPRI said that in addition to China’s “significant modernization and expansion,” India, Pakistan, North Korea and the United Kingdom are also increasing or planning to increase their arsenals.
However, he said, “The entire 60-year nuclear arms control project is at risk of coming to an end.”
Last year, Russia suspended its participation in New START, which aims to impose verifiable limits on Washington and Russia’s nuclear arsenals.
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, accusing Russia of violating the agreement. And a year earlier, President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, which many experts say made it easier for theocratic states to build such weapons.
Britain’s Admiral Radakin said the world should not have to face the horrors of nuclear war and must do what is necessary to avoid it: “strength of resolve.”
“To ensure that tragedies are avoided, we need to be aware of the risks of tragedies,” he says. “And the risk of tragedy is increasing. The world is more dangerous. The challenges are greater.”
