July 5, Anthony Colangelo, Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Law at the Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, for an op-ed examining the international law implications of Belarus using nuclear weapons supplied by Russia. Published in The Hill under the heading The new nuclear threat: Belarus: https://tinyurl.com/4b9hfdn6
On Sunday, Belarus issued a statement that it would use nuclear weapons if its “sovereignty and independence” were threatened. But would such a use violate international law?
The question breaks down into a few sub-questions, the first of which is how Belarus, Russia’s ally in the region, obtained nuclear weapons in the first place. The answer, of course, is that they came from Russia. From there, one must ask whether the stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus and the training of Belarusian soldiers in the use and operation of such weapons is a violation of international law.