The Strange Defeat of Nuclear Deterrence

[Excerpt from essay by Rose Gottemoeller, William J. Perry Lecturer at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 2016 to 2019, she served as Deputy Secretary-General of NATO. She is the author of Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and U.S.-Russia Relations After the Cold War.] In June 2025, Ukraine’s security services staged an audacious strike inside Russia. They infiltrated the country a