Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the most senior officer in the British Armed Forces, warned the world this week that humanity has entered a “third nuclear age” where the threat of an all-out thermonuclear war is more possible than ever before.
Speaking to the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) think tank on Wednesday, Radakin discussed the current state of England’s nuclear security.
“The security outlook is more contested, more ambiguous and more dangerous than we have known in our careers,” he stated, telling members of RUSI that “a third nuclear age is upon us.”
Radakin, who currently serves as the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, described the Cold War as the “first nuclear age” that was allegedly managed by leaders with “the logic of deterrence.”
The “second nuclear age” came in the 1990s when “nuclear non-proliferation” contributed to a safer world, according to the UK admiral.
He then blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the current nuclear age, saying, “From Russia we have seen wild threats of tactical nuclear use, large scale nuclear exercises and simulated attacks against NATO countries, all designed to coerce us from taking the action required to maintain stability… Putin believes in a historic fiction.”
However, Radakin suggested Russia would likely not launch a direct attack on the UK because the NATO retaliation would be “overwhelming.”
Hellbound and Down 