The Nuclear Chessboard: From the Ruins of the INF Treaty to a Multipolar Security Order
Ever since the dawn of the atomic age, Washington has rarely viewed "disarmament" as a virtue for its own sake. Instead, nuclear deterrence has functioned as a core strategic lever—a tool to project influence and safeguard a US-led global order. The collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was never the death knell of arms control; it was the opening move in a far more complex, multipolar game of great-power rivalry. 1. The Rise and Fall of the INF Treaty: A Shattered Legacy Signed in December 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the INF Treaty stood for decades as the bedrock of post-Cold War European security. Its mandate was simple yet unprecedented: eliminate an entire class of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, along with their launching infrastructure. Yet, the treaty eventually unraveled under an escalating war of accusations and strategic friction : ...