WORLD ROUNDUPDrone Surprises in Ukraine | India Rising | Fracking in Europe, and more

Published 4 October 2022

··Russia’s Small Nuclear Arms: A Risky Option for Putin and Ukraine Alike
Small is dangerous

··Russia’s Nuclear Bluster Is a Sign of Panic
Yielding to Putin’s blackmail would be folly

··India Is Quietly Laying Claim to Economic Superpower Status
India recently overtook UK as the world’s fifth biggest economy – and it could be third by 2030

··India Can’t Be a Superpower If It Can’t Create Jobs
India’s bloated, inefficient military is the result of lack of good jobs for young men

··What Accounts for the Economic Gap Between China and India?
China stole a march on India in manufacturing

··Why Fracking Cannot Solve Europe’s Energy Crisis
Europe’s shale-gas reservesare much smaller, and its population denser

··What Surprised One Drone Maker About Russia’s War on Ukraine
Drones proved effective in Ukraine, but they are no substitute for larger weapons

··A Stronger but Less Ambitious NATO
Sweden and Finland will resist the alliance’s missions outside Europe

Russia’s Small Nuclear Arms: A Risky Option for Putin and Ukraine Alike  (David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, New York Times)
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has 2,000 small nuclear weapons, but their utility on the battlefield may not be worth the longer-term costs.

Russia’s Nuclear Bluster Is a Sign of Panic  (Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic)
Any threat to use nuclear weapons by a country that possesses them has to be taken seriously. That’s particularly true of Russia, a country whose military doctrine has always entertained the deployment of relatively low-yield nuclear weapons in a war. To be clear, low-yield can mean a detonation equivalent to 5,000 or 10,000 tons of TNT. When Soviet war plans for Europe were revealed after the Cold War, analysts blanched at the magnitude of the nuclear assault the Soviet general staff had contemplated as the preparatory bombardment for a potential drive to the English Channel.
To yield to nuclear blackmail, however, would be folly. Give in now, and anyone with nuclear weapons will learn that the secret to success in a negotiation is to froth at the mouth, roll up one’s eyes, and threaten a mushroom cloud. To yield to Putin would be, as Churchill said in a different but not entirely dissimilar context, to take “but the first sip from a bitter cup.”

India Is Quietly Laying Claim to Economic Superpower Status  (Martin Farrer, Guardian)
The rise of China has been the biggest story in the global economy in recent decades. But amid concern about its stumbling property market and global fears about inflation, the emergence of its neighbor, India, as a potential new economic superpower may be going under the radar.
The U.K. has just been overtaken by India as the world’s fifth biggest economy. The nation of 1.4 billion people is on track to move into third place behind the US and China by 2030, according to economists.

India Can’t Be a Superpower If It Can’t Create Jobs  (Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg)
India’s attempt to reform military recruitment — which has set off political convulsions that show no signs of abating — once again shows that its aspirations to superpower status are no match for a below-par economy.

What Accounts for the Economic Gap Between China and India?  (Cameron Abadi, Foreign Policy)
The world’s two most populous countries had similar starting points, but China has outpaced India across the board.
The crucial