Throughout the Cold War, the two superpowers – the Soviet Union and the United States nearly started full nuclear exchange a few times – The tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie (which seems unimaginable to us now when we can do tank driving for fun at https://www.armourgeddon.co.uk/tank-driving-experience.html ). Then only a year later came the Cuban Missile Crisis – the whole world watched with bated breath as the humanities survival seemed to hang by a thread. In 1983, Operation Able Archer, a NATO training exercise once again nearly sparked a nuclear exchange.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it has seemed less and less likely that the world will end in a full nuclear exchange – indeed, it doesn’t seem to be at the forefront of public consciousness anymore as it once was. During the 1980s, pop culture, from film to music was ingrained with the grim realisation that we were very close to hearing the 4-minute warning.
But in recent years, the question has once again started to rear its ugly head. With tensions growing between Russia and the West as Russia continues to update its nuclear stockpile. In North Korea too, the current leader Kim Jong Un is seemingly obsessed with developing the nuclear missile program of the secretive state and with his hot temper is understandably a worry for the United Nations.
Then, over in America is the President Donald Trump – also hot tempered and unpredictable, and having a huge nuclear weapon stockpile at his disposal has also caused concern with his hot-headed reactions to North Koreas missile tests.
It seems that in these times a new cold war is back – hopefully it will diffuse as the last one did.