Nuclear weapons: the Franco-German axis of the atomic bomb is approaching
With the United Kingdom leaving the EU, France remained the only nuclear power within the Union. Until now, however, it had not made common its defense policies, or rather of deterrence, based on nuclear weapons. Paris sees this destructive asset as something of its own jealously developed in four nuclear missile submarines, to be used only in the event of an attack on its territory and with a vision of strategic deterrence, not for tactical use. To explain this clearly, Paris has always thought that its missiles and bombs were strictly for her to avoid nuclear attacks by some great power, such as Russia, China or, as far as we know, the USA. a tactical use, as done by NATO, to stop a possible invasion from the east has never been theorized or applied. France is a kind of autonomous guest in the alliance, whose standards it uses, but so far without strong direct participation.
Things seem to be changing in Paris, however, due to the invasion of Ukraine and new uncertainties in the east. On the one hand, France has become a more active partner in NATO, sending airplanes and soldiers to both Romania and the Baltic countries. Not only that, for the first time Paris has opened to nuclear military cooperation with NATO, and that is already a lot, and to the development of a nuclear deterrence with Germany, as the FAZ reports .
What has begun to be discussed is an autonomous European nuclear umbrella, not linked to NATO and American nuclear weapons. These are entrusted and deposited to individual European countries (including Italy) with a "Double key" system: the nuclear weapons cannot be used without the mutual agreement between the US president and the political authorities of the country that has them in deposit. The problem is therefore linked to dependence on Washington, which in any case holds the keys, except for the French ones. The FAZ speaks of Trump as the trigger for this crisis, because he would have "removed the certainty of US presidential permission", but it does not seem that Biden, beyond words, acts differently.
Obviously, being a European initiative, it was born calibrated and confused: in fact, “Dissuasion n” should run in parallel with a conversation with Russia for “Strategic Disarmament”, a very fun way to develop a deterrent force. Nuclear missiles are being built and at the same time they are being discussed to demolish them, perhaps while waiting for others to do so too. At that point we save money and not even build them! Furthermore, the talks were opened with Germany, not with the other countries. It would be a Franco German force.
Italy would have no advantage from this initiative: a double key with Berlin and Paris guarantees us as much, or perhaps even less, than a double key with Washington. The proximity of the German leadership to Russia, still very evident, would take away the significance of the deterrent force: between the invasion of a country in the Mediterranean area and low-cost gas, Berlin would certainly choose the latter . We should contribute to a project developed only by others which, among other things, would have no technological or industrial repercussions for us and would already be born old. Our function would be the same: that of the sheep to be sheared, a position that is always very much appreciated by the Piddini management.
Would you trust a nuclear deterrence in the hands of Berlin?
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The article Nuclear weapons: the Franco-German axis of the atomic bomb is approaching comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/armi-nucleari-si-avvicina-lasse-franco-tedesco-della-bomba-atomica/ on Sat, 19 Mar 2022 10:10:50 +0000.