Nuclear deterrence and the question of the place of nuclear weapons in the defence of Poland and Europe have returned to public debate with a force not seen since the end of the Cold War. Statements by politicians, shifts in allied postures and Russian nuclear rhetoric have turned a subject reserved for decades to a narrow circle of experts into a matter of political conversation. That conversation, however, often proceeds without ordering the basic concepts.
The panel is conducted strictly in the strategic and political dimension. We do not discuss technical solutions, parameters or operational matters. What we do order is the discussion of allied guarantees, of what the NATO nuclear sharing mechanism is and is not, and of the European dimension of deterrence and Poland’s place within it.
Escalation scenarios, strategic stability and the credibility of deterrence are areas where reasoning through modelled situations yields more than an exchange of declarations, which is why the panel is run in an analytical rather than a publicist convention. The goal is not to formulate recommendations or settle political disputes, but to produce an ordered picture of a debate that will accompany Polish security policy for the coming decade regardless of who conducts it.