As Russian officials threaten to use nuclear weapons as the invasion of Ukraine founders, the West is focused with unprecedented intensity and urgency on how to both deter and respond to nuclear use.
There has been considerable attention to the first; much less to the second.
After nuclear use, there is an instinctive inclination to argue for a response in kind: retaliation, or a nuclear “eye for an eye,” so to speak. While understandable, this is neither U.S. policy nor necessary. The United States and its allies have a vast array of capabilities, some nuclear, some conventional, some “other,” with which they can respond to a nuclear threat or use.