This interview explores his insights on how nuclear coercion threatens global stability and how leaders can navigate these high-stakes geopolitical shifts. Q: How has the role of nuclear weapons shifted from traditional deterrence to active coercion in modern conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Today, that logic has mutated under Putin, who has inverted the purpose of Russia’s arsenal by turning nuclear weapons from a defensive backstop into an offensive enabler. If the answer turns out to be that nuclear weapons buy impunity, then the institutions we built after 1945 become theater. We’ve been living with the illusion of a post nuclear world while rogue states operate with Cold War era immunity.