Quote from the book „Sicherheitspolitik verstehen“ („Understanding security policy“, 2021) by Lieutenant General (ret.) Kersten Lahl and Prof. Dr. Johannes Varwick (page 130):

„As a result, three conclusions can be drawn:

Firstly, nuclear weapons have a damage potential that puts the survival of the entire human race at high risk.

Secondly, this is precisely why they have so far been able to play a rather crisis-stabilising role in international practice – because a concrete deployment would be disastrous for all sides.

Thirdly, there is no guarantee that this will always be the case. On the contrary: the more nuclear actors ‘play along’, the more sophisticated the technical developments become and the more complex the strategic decision-making field around nuclear missions and threats of deployment, the higher the risk of a lack of international controllability of the category of nuclear weapons.”

Notes on the three points of this quote (PDF, 2 pages, Reading time about 5 minutes)

————————————————————————-

For the risks and consequences of nuclear war by mistake, see also menu item Risks.

Film by SWR from March 2021 about nuclear war by mistake on youtube (in german).