Ep 129: Frank Gavin on Nuclear Strategy and Ukraine (War in Ukraine #2)

Frank Gavin, the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and inaugural director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and contributor to War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, joins the show to talk about nuclear strategy and the war in Ukraine. ▪️ Times      •      01:36 Introduction      •      01:53 What are nuclear weapons for?     •      04:15 Pervasive but not used     •      09:53 Invasion insurance     •      17:58 Better to be near-nuclear       •      22:26 How might Putin use nuclear weapons?      •      26:04 Learning by doing     •      33:48 “It’s all happening at once”     •      41:31 Rattling the saber works       •      48:04 “We will get them back”         •      50:07 History and Strategy Follow along  on Instagram Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack Follow the link to buy the book - War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World