‘Escalate to de-escalate’: Russia’s nuclear threat explained

Summary

This article by Andrew Tillett, writing for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), makes the following points:

• The MAD approach is something strategists have dubbed ‘escalate to de-escalate’—a strategy used to deter the use of nuclear weapons.
• The strategy calls for threatening nuclear strikes to force Russia’s adversaries to buckle.
• This theory—escalate to de-escalate—follows from Moscow’s mistaken assumption that the West will capitulate on terms favourable to Moscow.
• Putin controls the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal, with 6255 warheads. The tally is greater than NATO members the US (5550), France (290) and the United Kingdom (225) combined.

References

Recent Runway Posts related to this topic:

• RUSSIAN-UKRAINE CONFLICT—RAAF RUNWAY COLLECTION
• RAAF RUNWAY: RATIONALE, GUIDELINES, LEARNING OUTCOMES, ETC. 

References from the Web:

• MAR 2022 Will Putin use nuclear weapons?—ASPI  
• MAR 2022 Would Vladimir Putin actually use nuclear weapons?—The Guardian

Source Information:

• Article Source: AFR (Australian Financial Review)
• Media Check: AFR - Media Bias Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com)
• LEARNING OUTCOMES—RUNWAY | The Runway (airforce.gov.au)