Matthew Kroenig, Professor in the Department of Government and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Director of Studies at the Atlantic Council, joins the show to discuss Russian nuclear doctrine and what it means for the war in Ukraine.

Times

00:49 - Introduction

01:07 - Forecasting Russia's potential gains in Ukraine

02:45 - The nuclear dimension in Ukraine

05:05 - Russian nuclear doctrine: escalate to de-escalate

10:52 - Potential U.S. responses to Russian nuclear strikes on NATO allies

12:54 - Perceptions of nuclear weapons, from the Cold War to now

15:46 - Battlefield nuclear tactics

18:32 - Russian thinking on employing chemical weapons

21:05 - U.S. nuclear weapons policy

25:44 - Scenarios when Russia would use nuclear weapons

27:16 - Putin's rationale and next steps

29:21 - Russian strikes and potential fault lines in Western unity

32:30 - U.S. reliance on Russia's brokerage of a nuclear deal with Iran