Ep. 21: Matthew Kroenig on Ukraine and Putin’s Nuclear Weapons

School of War

Matthew Kroenig, Professor in the Department of Government and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Director of Studies at the Atlantic Council, joins the show to discuss Russian nuclear doctrine and what it means for the war in Ukraine.

Matthew Kroenig, Professor in the Department of Government and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Director of Studies at the Atlantic Council, joins the show to discuss Russian nuclear doctrine and what it means for the war in Ukraine. Times<ul>
<li>00:49 - Introduction</li>
<li>01:07 - Forecasting Russia's potential gains in Ukraine</li>
<li>02:45 - The nuclear dimension in Ukraine</li>
<li>05:05 - Russian nuclear doctrine: escalate to de-escalate</li>
<li>10:52 - Potential U.S. responses to Russian nuclear strikes on NATO allies</li>
<li>12:54 - Perceptions of nuclear weapons, from the Cold War to now</li>
<li>15:46 - Battlefield nuclear tactics</li>
<li>18:32 - Russian thinking on employing chemical weapons</li>
<li>21:05 - U.S. nuclear weapons policy</li>
<li>25:44 - Scenarios when Russia would use nuclear weapons</li>
<li>27:16 - Putin's rationale and next steps</li>
<li>29:21 - Russian strikes and potential fault lines in Western unity</li>
<li>32:30 - U.S. reliance on Russia's brokerage of a nuclear deal with Iran</li>
</ul>

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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history.&nbsp; Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras.The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>