In a nuclear-armed world, any conflict can turn into a nucle

[Oscar]

In a nuclear-armed world, any conflict can turn into a nuclear war

by Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility,

- Letters to the Editor, the Hill Times, March 17 2025

[ https://www.hilltimes.com/wp-content/up ... 5_HT_2.pdf ]

EXCERPT: "Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s punitive behaviour towards Canada, author Jamie Carroll suggests Canada should “buy” nuclear weapons from France. Presumably he is willing to tear up the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It forbids any Nuclear Weapons State from transferring such weapons to any recipient whatsoever. Would Canada follow North Korea’s lead by formally withdrawing from the NPT, as the latter did in 2003? That would likely induce many other non-nuclear weapons states to abandon a treaty that Canada once promoted as a cornerstone of nuclear non-proliferation efforts.

Carroll apparently thinks that nuclear-armed cruise missiles could be usefully deployed in Canada to defend northern territories from attack by nuclear-armed states like Russia, China, or even India. How would that work? A cruise missile can carry a conventional explosive or a nuclear bomb. In the event of military confrontation, Canada’s Arctic adversary would have to interpret the launching of any cruise missile by Canada as a nuclear attack, even if it were not. The MAD doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction means the adversary will respond with its own nuclear counter-attack. That’s how an “accidental nuclear war” starts. . . . . "

More . . . .

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Article I
Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices.