Babbage: What are tactical nuclear weapons?
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The war in Ukraine has raised the nuclear threat to its highest level since the Cuban missile crisis. What types of nuclear weapons could be used in Ukraine, and how much damage could they do?
Cheryl Rofer, a former nuclear scientist at America’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, describes the “tactical” nukes in Russia’s arsenal. Patricia Lewis, research director for international security at Chatham House, explains the destruction that would be wrought if the war turned nuclear. Plus, Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s defence editor, analyses whether Russia’s recent military setbacks increase the risk of nuclear conflict. Alok Jha hosts.
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Transcript
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| 0:36.7 | It's been almost eight months since Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine. |
| 0:43.6 | Since the very first weeks of the war, Russian officials have made threats |
| 0:48.0 | that they're already devastating attacks could one day get even worse with the use of nuclear weapons. |
| 0:55.1 | Why do we have to throw nuclear weapons? |
| 0:56.9 | In May, the state-owned television channel, Russia 1, |
| 1:00.7 | played simulations of nuclear missiles obliterating the British Isles. |
| 1:08.6 | Just one launch, said the presenter, and England is gone. |
| 1:14.3 | Recently, the threats have taken on an even more sinister tone. |
| 1:18.7 | After Vladimir Putin annexed some occupied territories in Ukraine, |
| 1:22.8 | he proclaimed that Russia would defend these lands using, quote, |
| 1:28.4 | all means at its disposal. |
| 1:34.3 | America's president, Joe Biden, has compared this situation today to the Cuban missile crisis, |
| 1:39.8 | which played out 60 years ago. |
| 1:42.0 | I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to haul and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, |
| 1:48.8 | and provocative threat to world peace. |
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