Highway to Hell: The Armageddon Chronicles, 2015-2024

by Scott Ritter, Lawrence Wilkerson (Foreword by)

Overview

The world stands on the precipice of a nuclear Armageddon, the byproduct of a confluence of the demise of the foundational principles of arms control that had served as a check on the world’s two largest nuclear-armed nations, the United States and Russia, and the geopolitical consequences of a failing hegemon clashing with an emerging multipolar reality. Nuclear weapons, once codified as weapons of deterrence intended never to be used, have morphed into weapons that have become integrated in the warfighting plans of the nuclear-armed powers. Deterrence is no longer in vogue—warfighting and war winning are.
There will be no winner in a nuclear conflict.
Critical thinking about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, the necessity of arms control, and the consequences of nuclear war has never been more urgently needed. Highway to Hell: The Armageddon Chronicles, 2015-2024 affords the reader a comprehensive insight into these critical issues as they were unfolding, free of the circumspection and narrative management of conventional histories.
Scott Ritter has been sounding the alarm about the dangerous path the world is headed down for some time now—his book Scorpion King: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump, serves as a stark warning about the inherent dangers posed by nuclear weapons and the policies that sustain them.
Another book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union, brings to life the important potential of arms control agreements in bringing the threat posed by nuclear weapons to heel by detailing his own personal experiences from 1988-1990 as a weapons inspector in the successful implementation of the INF arms control treaty with the Soviet Union.
Highway to Hell offers some of Scott Ritter’s best writing and analysis on the danger of nuclear weapons and the need for arms control, culled from dozens of articles he wrote from 2015 to 2024 on the arms race, the death of arms control, the nuclear role of China, Iran, North Korea and Israel, and the U.S. nuclear posture shift from deterrence to employment. This is where we are today: on the cusp of a nuclear conflict with Russia.
Humanity is no longer protected from nuclear war by the series of arms control treaties between the US and Russia. This book awakens the reader to the existential danger nuclear weapons pose today, and seeks to motivate them to do something about it

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781963892208
Publisher:	Clarity Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/15/2025
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Scott Ritter is a former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and on the staff of General Norman Schwartzkopf during the Gulf War, where he played a critical role in the hunt for Iraqi SCUD missiles. Mr. Ritter served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq, leading the search for Iraq’s proscribed weapons of mass destruction. He is author of 11 books, including Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, Scorpion King, and Covering Ukraine

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell.

Read an Excerpt

The Growing Threat of
Nuclear War
The United States finds itself wandering in a wilderness of indecision when it comes to arms control policy.
The situation regarding the status of the last existing nuclear arms control treaty with Russia— the New START treaty—is dire. Implementation is currently frozen after Russia suspended its participation in protest to a stated U.S. policy objective of seeking the strategic defeat of Russia, something Russia finds incompatible with opening its strategic nuclear deterrent (which exists precisely to prevent Russia’s strategic defeat) to inspection by U.S. officials.
The U.S. is not talking with Russia about the future of arms control once New START expires in February 2026.
Moreover, fallout from the U.S. policy of seeking strategic defeat of Russia has seen Moscow radically alter its position regarding future arms control treaties. Any future agreement must, from the Russian perspective, include missile defense; the French and British nuclear arsenals, as well as the U.S.-supplied NATO nuclear deterrent.
Russia has further complicated any future negotiations by deploying tactical nuclear weapons to its Baltic enclave in Kaliningrad, as well as extending its Russian-controlled nuclear umbrella to Belarus where it has mirrored the NATO nuclear umbrella.
The state of play today regarding strategic arms control between the U.S. and Russia can best be likened to a patient on life support whom no one is trying to revive.
Russia is in the process of finalizing a major modernization of its strategic nuclear forces, built around the new Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and the Avangard hypersonic
reentry vehicle. The United States is on the cusp of initiating its own
multi-billion- dollar upgrade to the U.S. nuclear Triad consisting of
the B-21 stealth bomber, the Columbia class missile submarine and
the new Sentinel ICBM.
If no treaty vehicle exists designed to verifiably limit the deployment
of these new weapons, once New START expires, the U.S. and
Russia will find themselves engaged in an unconstrained nuclear arms
race that dramatically increases the probability of unintended nuclear
conflict.
When viewed in this light, the future of global security hinges on
the ability of Russia and the U.S. to return to the negotiating table and
resuscitate arms control from its present moribund state.
Key to this will be the willingness of Washington to incorporate
Russian concerns into U.S. nuclear posture.

Editorial Reviews

"Scott Ritter has done it again. Another great read. As a former Command Chief of Space Command, the command which had the responsibility of our land based nuclear arsenal, I have seen up and close what nuclear weapons can do. I think we should take heed to what Scott has documented. Anyone who cares about the survival of our planet should read this remarkable chronicle." DENNIS FRITZ, Director, Eisenhower Media Network and Former Command Chief of Space Command

"No one knows more about nuclear weapons than Scott Ritter. He has devoted the better part of his post-military career to warning the world about the dangers of their use and how close we are at this writing to universal destruction. The keys to universal destruction were created by the American Empire, mimicked by its selected allies, stolen by the Israelis who time and again have threatened to destroy the world, and now rests in the hands of dangerous immoral people. In Highway to Hell, Scott shares his vast knowledge of these horrible weapons and whispers into our ears a warning: If someone repeatedly threatens to destroy the planet and has the means to do so, you better take them seriously. Don’t expect to get much sleep once you’ve started to read this book." HON. ANDREW J. NAPOLITNANO, Former NJ Superior Court Judge, NY Times best-selling author.

"Sadly, many world leaders have lost the necessary fear of nuclear war. Scott's writings help us understand how hard work and organizing by regular people can change the direction of international policy. His journey is relevant to the struggle that we all experience and reading about it will surely motivate you to do your part." GARLAND NIXON, Host, NewsViews with Garland Nixon

"Scott Ritter's Highway to Hell is an accessible must-read chronicle on the biggest existential question facing humanity: the threat of nuclear conflict. This book takes you on a journey that empowers readers not only with the history and geopolitical analysis we need to understand the problem, but also the steps we must take to stop imperial madness before it's too late."
DANNY HAIPHONG, Host of “The Left Lens with Danny Haiphong” podcast

"Dante Alighieri described a fictional Perdition in The Inferno. Scott Ritter knows that failure to put down nuclear weapons truly sets us on The Highway to Hell. An urgent read requiring urgent action."
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Former U.S. Congressman and 2004, 2008 Democratic candidate for President

From the Publisher