The Disorderly Advent of the Tripolar Nuclear Order
Former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, Dr. Vipin Narang, stated on August 1, 2024, that the United States is facing a “multiple nuclear challenger problem” with Russia as a nuclear peer, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) becoming a nuclear peer, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) further developing its nuclear capabilities. Compared to the rather benign nuclear threat environment that emerged after the Cold War (once the nuclear implications of the dissolution of the USSR had been resolved), the United States and its Allies find themselves today in an unstable interregnum towards a new global nuclear order. Therefore, this article aims to focus on the concept of nuclear polarity and the role of non-material factors in the current transition period towards a tripolar nuclear order with three nuclear peers, namely the United States, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China.
This paper was first published in the Journal of Policy & Strategy (NIPP) and the full text can be read there.
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