With his invasion of Ukraine Vladimir Putin has opened the Era of Nuclear Blackmail
The scenes of devastation in Ukraine could be repeated in Eastern Europe, Taiwan, the South China Sea. Anywhere a nuclear armed authoritarian regime [Russia, China, North Korea] wished to impose its will unilaterally on its “adversaries” whether they are nuclear enabled or not.
Look at what happened after the opening invasion of Ukraine. Western powers did not dare interfere with the invasion. with a no-fly-zone.Even as the possibility of naval and/or air-cover for Ukraine was advanced, Putin immediately called for making his nuclear strike forces ready. Over the past 5 years, Russia has dramatically beefed up its field-based nuclear strike missile capabilities Now one can see why Putin is so confident of his nuclear advantage to backup his invasion of Ukraine. Hence the opening of the Era of Nuclear Blackmail. has commenced. Is Taiwan next?
And so one more Wicked Problem, Nuclear Political Blackmail, is added to the current proliferation of perverse mega-problems:
1)a deadly and persistent pandemic outbreak being undone by those who should be protected,
2)climate change continuing to unleash more devastating natural disasters,
3)the world of technolgy slipping into the dark arts of minformation dissemination and cyber grifting – looting transformed into hacking methods and marts for duping and looting web users,
4)a billionaire wealth caste for whom the rules of law and unequal-commerce are used to secure decisively favorable business outcomes or immunity from any legal liability.
Is it any wonder that “slipping into opiod surrender and/or suicide” is a growth industry.