Beatrice Fihn
Disarmament Expert: How the West Should Respond to Putin’s Nuclear Weapons Threat
Beatrice Fihn during an interview. The Ican CEO is concerned about a possible nuclear war over Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons.
© GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / picturedesk.co / Picture Alliance
The West fears that Russia could use nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. Could that be prevented? The expert Beatrice Fihn outlines a possible course of action against Vladimir Putin’s threat – and makes the West responsible.
Nuclear weapons are considered to be the most destructive weapons of all. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian nuclear forces to be on high alert. However, the Kremlin denies concrete plans to use nuclear weapons, while the US foreign intelligence agency CIA is now warning of a possible Russian use of tactical nuclear bombs.
The executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), Beatrice Fihn, spoke in an interview with the “Tagesanzeiger” about how the West should react to Putin’s threat.
“The assumption that we can rely on the concept of mutual deterrence is not enough and is simply wrong,” says Fihn in the Swiss medium. With his threat, President Putin is saying the previously unspoken part about nuclear weapons. “Nuclear deterrence always happens against the background of people being willing to threaten one another to kill civilians en masse to get what they want.”
Fihn calls for joint disarmament of nuclear weapons
When asked how the West should deal with this threat, she explains: “First of all, it’s about Ukraine and we have to do everything we can to defend Ukraine.” It’s about helping refugees, humanitarian aid. Many countries also supported Ukraine with conventional military means. “In addition, there must be a clear, unified message that the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.”
Because nuclear armament is “the worst thing you can do”. “Do you think you can win the game of doomsday against a dictator?” said the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner. The current situation shows how vulnerable we are as long as nuclear weapons exist.
“People are dying. Putin is having hospitals and schools bombed. It doesn’t help if we are now threatening to use nuclear weapons or arming ourselves,” says Fihn. She is certain: “We should make it clear that the threat that is now being raised will not be the last to be uttered if we continue to hold onto nuclear weapons.” It is important not to escalate further. We finally need a serious process towards disarmament, demands the Ican managing director.
She criticizes: “We avoid the question of disarmament of nuclear weapons, because then of course we would have to be ready for it ourselves.” Fihn therefore demands: “We need a systematic approach that includes the goal of a world without nuclear weapons as the last step.” Ultimately, one would have to “set in motion a mutually verifiable process of disarmament,” with the two major nuclear powers, the USA and Russia, being particularly important.
Countries should condemn Putin’s threat at planned conference
What Putin is doing with his threat will happen again and again. Fihn fears: “If we don’t take the current situation as an opportunity to seriously start this process, we will actually end up in a nuclear war at some point.”
According to Fihn, in order to initiate a joint disarmament process, all states “that are seriously interested in disarmament and an end to nuclear weapons should first come to the conference planned by the United Nations (on the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty) in Vienna in June.” It is an opportunity for very different countries with different dependencies, some from the US, some from China, some from Russia, to condemn Putin’s threat.
Source: daily indicator