Nikolaev, I.O. The process of nuclear disarmament and destruction of Heartland.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problems caused by the nuclear disarmament of the Russian Federation and the USA. The goal of the study is to establish the character of influence of the Russian-American relations in the sphere of disarmament on the changes in traditional geopolitical views. The author analyzes changes in perception of nuclear weapons in the Cold War period, as well as specific features of influence of the American military doctrines and strategies on the foreign policy of the USA, and the acts of the USA towards the USSR and Russia. The author provides the fundamentals for the necessity of symmetrical response of the Russian Federation towards the foreign political threats provoked by the process of nuclear disarmament. Based upon the studies the author establishes the specific features of the Heartland transformation in the conditions of growing and diminishing nuclear disarmament. The classical geopolitics is being deformed by appearance and development of nuclear weapons. Traditional geopolitical rules for the “global chess desk” are complicated with a large number of exceptions, complicating the possibilities for the objective evaluations and forming high potential for the bifurcation points, where it is impossible to forecast the further development vector. Therefore, the geopolitical paradigm in the international relations loses its value, giving way to more objective paradigms, such as realism and liberalism. One of the consequences of disarmament is return to the primary geopolitical positions, where military actions are possible without preventive blows, capable of destroying the opponent.

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