United States | And then there were three

How will America deal with three-way nuclear deterrence?

It risks a new arms race, not only against Russia but also against China

|Washington, DC

THE LANKY Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile and its squat naval cousin, Trident, stand sentinel near Omaha, outside the headquarters of America’s Strategic Command, which is in charge of America’s fearsome nuclear arsenal. Inside, STRATCOM’s personnel say they have been at “battle stations” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, watching for any sign that Vladimir Putin might act on his threats to use nukes. For Admiral Charles Richard, the commander, the war in Ukraine marks a new era in which big powers use nuclear weapons to coerce rivals. But “this is just the warm-up,” he declared on November 3rd. “The big one is coming. And it isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested.”

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The conundrum of three-way nuclear deterrence”

China’s covid failure

From the December 3rd 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

The demise of an iconic American highway

California’s Highway 1 is showing the limits of man’s ingenuity

How the election will shape the Supreme Court

A second Trump administration could lock in a conservative supermajority for decades


Could the Kamala Harris boost put Florida in play for Democrats?

Some party enthusiasts think so, but realists see re-energised campaigning there as a savvy Florida feint


America is not ready for a major war, says a bipartisan commission

The country is unaware of the dangers ahead, and of the costs to prepare for them

The southern border is Kamala Harris’s biggest political liability

What does her record reveal about her immigration policy?