Two retired Air Force generals, Dan "Fig" Leaf and Howard "Dallas" Thompson, discuss what they see as a fundamental shift in nuclear thinking. They describe the emergence of a new norm in nuclear doctrine: blackmail. That approach is in stark contrast to the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction, where major powers – United States, the USSR, and China – viewed atomic attack as truly a last resort. The United States must now seriously consider its options to counter a new collective nuclear blackmail.

Russia has implied that it could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and North Korea has done the same in reference to South Korea and the United States. China's words and actions regarding Taiwan and the growing partnership between Presidents Xi and Putin suggest that the PRC's stated "no-first-use" policy may be a hollow promise.

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