Description
t has become commonplace to note the ‘return’ of great power politics and a concurrent shift awayfromafocusonterrorismtowardmajorinterstatecompetitioninInternationalPolitics. Many aspects of this trend have received attention in recent years, from trade wars and crisis management, tothe response to Covid-19 and most recently of all, the 2022 war in Ukraine. All point to the nature and quality of great power relations being the central axis on which the major questions of inter-state war, peace and cooperation turn once more. But under analysed so far has been the nuclear dimensions of this trend. This is important because we are on the cusp of a multipolar order where, for the first time, the ‘poles of power’ are nuclear- armed. In this article, we outline the historical context by analysing how the unipolar distribution of power over the last thirty years led to a diminished focus on the threat of nuclear war in favour of a focus on other (nuclear) risks, most prominently nuclear terrorism, nuclear counterproliferation and nuclear security. We then explore the dynamics of today’s emerging nuclear-armed multipolar system with a particular focus on great power relations, flash-points and tensions in the Euro-Atlantic and Asia. We conclude by arguing that after a generation spent focussed on ‘other’ potentially existential threats, the spectre of great power nuclear war has made an unwelcome return to prominence in international affairs.
