New Delhi, Aug. 6 -- On August 6, 1945, a US military aircraft dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima at 8:15 AM in the morning.

In 43 seconds, Hiroshima ceased to exist. Nagasaki was targeted on August 9. The embedded message of that apocalyptic violence was meant to be final: build a world where this horrific tragedy can never happen again.

Eighty one years later the world is paying scant attention to this message and the restraint around nuclear weapons that was maintained since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis is unravelling.

Guardrails Coming Off

The guardrails that ensured a semblance of stability and restraint are coming off, one by one.

President Putin's invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022 and Russia, a nuclear-armed P5 state r...