As history seems to accelerate amid the war in Ukraine, East Asia is revisiting nuclear weapon options. A blind belief in China’s ‘peaceful rise’ had lulled many countries in East Asia into strategic complacency. The region also saw the 75-year-old nuclear taboo as a well-established norm. Then came the Ukraine war. The threat of using nuclear weapons to shape outcomes in Ukraine has had a strategic resonance in East Asia. The prospect of leveraging nuclear weapons in regional conflicts is compelling East Asia to take a fresh look at the importance of nuclear weapons in deterring aggression. 

The discussion featured Amb. Rakesh Sood, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation & Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations