Jim Sciutto on the return of great-power conflict - CNN

 

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CNN’s Jim Sciutto on the return of great-power conflict Will historians remember 2024 as another 1939? According to CNN’s Jim Sciutto, there are troubling parallels between the state of the world today and the years preceding World War II. In both instances a revanchist leader attempted to capture another country’s territory, with many around the world hoping it would be the last such attempt. There are also significant differences between then and now, of course, but Sciutto hopes to raise an alarm in his new book, The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War. According to Sciutto, one of the signs that worried him most was just how close Russia may have gotten to attempting to use a tactical nuclear device in 2022. Speaking on FP Live, he described how, late in the summer of 2022, Russia had lost Kherson, and had started to spread rumors that Ukraine was planning to use a dirty bomb—a nuclear device of sorts—in southern Ukraine. Such rumors could have allowed Moscow to use such a device itself but point the finger at Kyiv. The White House responded with a flurry of diplomatic outreach. “But then the final piece is that the United States reached out to what [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken described to me as unusual allies in this case. And that is China and India—allies that they believed Russia would listen to more,” Sciutto said. “It made a difference in heading this off. … But boy, it was close. It was close by their account. And it’s just a reminder of how the ingredients for escalation are there.” CATCH UP ON THE FULL CONVERSATION Watch the full interview: Watch See highlights from this FP Live: highlights Read a condensed and edited transcript: Read