New Initiative in Europe To ‘Analyze’ Nuclear Warfare

In December 2023, it was announced that the U.S.-based Stanton Foundation had granted another “generous endowment” to the project titled, “Understanding Assurance, Deterrence, and Potential Nuclear Escalation in Europe”, based at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security in Germany, and co-sponsored by the Munich Security Conference. In fact, the founder and former head of the Centre is Wolfgang Ischinger, the former chairman of the MSC, who is on the advisory committee of this new project. The project was set up to address the lack of expertise in nuclear strategy in Germany and in much of Europe, and the new grant is designed to build a “European hub for research, teaching, and outreach on nuclear security”.

The Director of Hertie’s Center for International Security Prof. Marina Henke said, “Russia’s war on Ukraine has displayed once more the potency of nuclear weapons as a coercive tool. In Germany we have lost much of our scientific knowledge on how to understand and react to such nuclear weapon use. We are grateful to the Stanton Foundation for enabling us to start rebuilding this knowledge and training the next generation of nuclear security scholars and strategists.”

The Hertie School was founded by the Hertie Foundation, which is based on the fortune of the founder of Hertie department stores, which no longer exist. The Stanton Foundation, is a U.S.-based private foundation established by the late Frank Stanton, former president of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and an adviser on nuclear issues to President Eisenhower in the 1950s. In addition to giving grants for research on nuclear security, it specializes in “advancing canine welfare” (that’s right, the well-being of dogs). The Hertie School’s Centre, however, is apparently only concerned with the first topic, and plans to cover such topics as “European nuclear strategy and doctrine in an age of great-power competition and nuclear arms control”.

In a recent interview with EIR, Lt.Col. (ret) Ralph Bosshard of the Swiss army had warned that as Europeans leaders realize they cannot defend Europe through conventional forces, a discussion would begin on the use of tactical nuclear weapons. In that context, the danger of this new program creating a legion of Dr. Strangeloves should not be dismissed.