Europe Needs to Look to Its Own Nuclear Deterrent: Part 1

What we are seeing proves Europe must have nuclear weapons--independent of the USA

Hi All,

I started writing this piece, and once again it got rather long, so Iam cutting it in half. The first part is about what we have learned and why Europe needs to start looking after its own nuclear future. The second (later in the week) will discuss how exactly Europe might do that.

The Lesson

The lessons of the last few days should be obvious even to those who have been the strongest advocates of nuclear disarmament. Having nuclear weapons not only provides an extraordinary level of protection not afforded to non-nuclear powers, they allow you to threaten to take the territory of non-nuclear powers with the greatest of violence—with pressure put on the non-nuclear power to acquiesce in your demands. Non-nuclear powers are not just different, they are fundamentally inferior and treated as such even by their supposedly best friends and allies.

The way that Ukraine has been made to suffer is the greatest lesson of all. A non-nuclear power by choice, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons (much of the USSR’s arsenal) for what seemed to be some of the strongest security guarantees possible. The US and Russia, for instance, under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, pledged to protect the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine if the latter gave its weapons to Russia and signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. It lasted less than two decades before unravelling and the non-nuclear power (Ukraine) was invaded by the nuclear power (Russia). Now it can be seen as one of the most laughably weak treaties in history—giving up the weapons basically meant Ukraine gave up its security.

A Model of the Next Generation of French Strategic Submarines—which soon might be vital to the security of Europe. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2021/02/frances-new-submarine-will-be-even-quieter-than-the-ocean/#prettyPhoto