Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

ence seems more like Bulgakov’s world where the
little demons have their own active role in bringing
good. <strong>Tactical</strong> nuclear weapons in the Western view
are only cogs in the linkage to nuclear escalation <strong>and</strong>
assured destruction, which ensure deterrence. But in
the Russian view, the little demons are the very instruments
that would prevent a local war from becoming
a general war leading to strategic nuclear engagement.
They would do this by forcing a pause to bring about
political de-escalation of the conflict. How good triumphs
over evil in each case is based on very different
assumptions, especially regarding the threats against
the state <strong>and</strong> the role of nuclear weapons in dealing
with them. The evolution of TNWs seems to make the
equation even more ambiguous.
In this regard, it is worth considering what threats
<strong>and</strong> challenges Russian national security strategy is
designed to manage. Certainly, Russian statesmen
consider threats <strong>and</strong> challenges from the West to have
been the greatest challenge for most of Russia’s modern
history. In the last 20 years since the end of the Cold
War, Russia has faced a relatively benign security environment,
with threats of internal instability <strong>and</strong> possible
external intervention along Russia’s western <strong>and</strong>
southwestern periphery as the chief concerns. Because
of the nature of the collapse of the Soviet Union, some
Russians have put greater emphasis upon ideological
threats from the West that would lead to unrest <strong>and</strong>
anti-Russian governments. But most Russians do not
see conflict with the United States <strong>and</strong> <strong>NATO</strong> as imminent,
<strong>and</strong> they consider the risk of general nuclear
war to be remote. The primary concern in this period
has arisen from <strong>NATO</strong>’s commitment to <strong>and</strong> execution
of out-of-area operations in local conflicts with
the associated risks that such interventions will occur
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