The primary danger is a nuclear war. Putin has ordered to put nuclear forces on high alert, and that’s enough. It’s analogous to Cuban Missile Crisis, and that was pretty dangerous.
Otherwise, it is not particularly dangerous. World leaders seem pretty careful to avoid escalation so far. There are lots of reactions due to high saliency (as you mentioned, close to Europe etc, compare Georgia), not due to high danger.
Potential danger is that due to war’s “popularity” (a bad choice of word, but can’t think of better ones off the top of my head), leaders of democratic countries may feel forced to escalate, because they are ultimately accountable to people. It is their duty to say no to escalation, but they will be tempted to say yes.
The primary danger is a nuclear war. Putin has ordered to put nuclear forces on high alert, and that’s enough. It’s analogous to Cuban Missile Crisis, and that was pretty dangerous.
Otherwise, it is not particularly dangerous. World leaders seem pretty careful to avoid escalation so far. There are lots of reactions due to high saliency (as you mentioned, close to Europe etc, compare Georgia), not due to high danger.
Potential danger is that due to war’s “popularity” (a bad choice of word, but can’t think of better ones off the top of my head), leaders of democratic countries may feel forced to escalate, because they are ultimately accountable to people. It is their duty to say no to escalation, but they will be tempted to say yes.
This seems very spot on, thanks.