World forever changed

“The world has changed in the last 31 days.” That’s what a visiting minister from Finland said at a meeting I attended a little over a month after Russia invaded Ukraine. At the time, it sounded uncomfortably like the words Sir Edward Grey spoke on Aug. 3, 1914: “The lamps have gone out over all Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” He didn’t exaggerate. Millions died, empires fell and a century that began with so much promise became one of wars, genocide and the specter of world extinction.

It’s been more than two months since Russia invaded Ukraine. During that time, Russia ringed Ukraine, stalled, retreated, reinforced its forces and initiated a new offensive. Also during that same time, Ukraine unexpectedly slowed Russian advances to a standstill, evacuated millions of mostly children and women, and rearmed itself with the help of NATO, transforming what at first looked like low-hanging fruit for Russian aggression into a grinding war. All this would be frightening enough if nuclear powers weren’t involved. But they are, and nuclear extinction looms closer than it has at any time since the “Missiles of October” 60 years ago.

There are a number of possible outcomes to this war. The best thing that could happen would be if Russia decided it had enough of its dangerous adventure and called for a truce. To get that truce, it would need to accept Ukrainian demands on withdrawal, reparations and war crimes. And Ukraine would need more than written assurances that it would not be attacked again. Russia surrendering a number of nuclear devices to Ukraine could be one short-term solution.

To be assured that we would never again be standing at the precipice of nuclear extinction, we need to make nukes obsolete. It’s possible, but it would take time, lots of brain power, lots of money, and lots and lots of luck. In the meantime, we need to face the reality that we now live in a different world than the one we knew two months ago.