Heroism against madman : the psychology of blackmail and bluffing in the war game with tactical nuclear weapons
Journal: Doria (University of Helsinki)
Year: 2024

The paper offers an explanation for Ukraine's ability to successfully defend itself against Russian forces during the first year of the war in Ukraine. It presents an analytic model of soldiers' willingness to take risk based on intergenerationally altruistic preferences of the defenders. When Russia has not achieved its military goals with conventional weaponry, it has threatened to use nuclear weapons. The threat of resorting to nuclear weapons has earlier been discussed in the spirit of a Mad