Things are going swimmingly in Joe Biden’s America.

As much as you think that our domestic situation is unstable and getting worse, don’t worry. That is nothing compared to the instability and downward plunge in peace in the rest of the world.

JUST IN: The U.S. has conducted a nuclear test in Nevada, hours after Russia revoked their ban on atomic weapons testing.

Bloomberg reports that the test used radioisotopes and chemicals to “validate new predictive explosion models”

The test comes after Putin was seen in… pic.twitter.com/Pl3hZKdSAN

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 20, 2023

The headline is, I will admit, a bit hyperbolic. The United States did not in fact blow up a nuclear weapon underground, but rather a massive high-explosive bomb salted with nuclear materials.

It was a “shot across the bow,” as it were, indicating to Russia America’s displeasure with the fact that the Russian Duma has revoked its own ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. So far neither country has in fact tested a nuclear weapon, but Russia is threatening to reject limits on doing so

ussia’s parliament voted Tuesday to revoke ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the first of three readings, raising fears that Moscow will resume nuclear testing.

Members of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, voted unanimously—412 votes to zero—to revoke Moscow’s ratification of the treaty. The bill must pass three readings in the lower house and receive approval from the upper house before it is sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s desk to be signed into law.

The landmark Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty prohibits “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world. Arms control experts have said that Moscow withdrawing from the treaty shows that Russia, which possesses the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, is ready to resume nuclear testing.

Moscow has said it would not resume nuclear weapons testing unless Washington does so first.

So far we have no clear indication that either country is doing anything but rattling sabers, indicating that things just got a bit less stable than they already were, not that a nuclear arms race is on the cusp of starting up again.

Despite his upping the rhetorical temperature, Putin has made no moves to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. I, among others, feared that Putin would feel that he was pushed into a corner after his bid to displace Ukraine’s government collapsed and the war moved into a protracted battle that has bled both countries dry. Russia, unlike Ukraine, has suffered a loss of international prestige and diplomatic power, while Ukraine has seen its diplomatic star rise.

Ukraine has become militarily stronger, while Russia is correspondingly weaker, despite Ukraine suffering more absolute losses. A sad irony of the war is that Ukraine has suffered far more in absolute terms at the same time that it has become stronger politically, showing the insane calculus of war.

The political loss of face and decline in military power that Russia has suffered has likely been the impetus for Russia’s move to reject the longstanding treaty.

Biden is calling Putin’s bluff in conducting this test. The United States did not sign the treaty, but has abided by it.

The test, which was conducted in a tunnel of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), used chemicals, high-explosives and radiotracers to “validate new predictive explosion models,” the department said.

The tests were conducted hours after members of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, voted to withdraw ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world.

“These experiments advance our efforts to develop new technology in support of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals,” Corey Hinderstein, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, said in a statement. “They will help reduce global nuclear threats by improving the detection of underground nuclear explosive tests.”

Both Russia’s and America’s moves are so far symbolic–neither has actually set off a nuclear weapon. But Biden’s high explosive test at a nuclear testing site was clearly intended as a pushback.

Even if either power actually conducts a nuclear test it would not, in itself, be a dangerous escalation of already strained relations. Nuclear tests are, in themselves, not particularly harmful or even useful. They are more about diplomatic signaling.

On the other hand, the signals sent are not exactly comforting.