Nuclear strategy
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Nuclear strategy involves the development of doctrines and strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear strategy, as a sub-branch of military strategy, attempts to match nuclear weapons as means to political ends. Among the issues considered within nuclear strategy are: under what conditions does it serve a nation's interest to develop nuclear weapons, what types of nuclear weapons should be developed, and when and how should such weapons be used? Many strategists argue that nuclear strategy differs from other forms of military strategy because the immense and terrifying power of the weapons makes their use in seeking victory in a traditional military sense impossible. Perhaps counterintuitively, then, an important focus of nuclear strategy has been determining how to prevent (i.e. deter) their use.
See also
| Nuclear weapons | |
|---|---|
| |
| History of nuclear weapons | |
| Nuclear warfare | |
| Nuclear arms race | |
| Weapon design / testing | |
| Nuclear explosion | |
| Delivery systems | |
| Nuclear espionage | |
| Proliferation | |
| Countries | |
| Nuclear weapons states US · Russia · UK · France China · India · Pakistan Israel · North Korea | |
- Strategic bombing
- First strike, Second strike
- No first use
- Massive retaliation
- Minimal deterrence
- Decapitation strike
- Nuclear blackmail
- Mutual assured destruction (MAD)
- Nuclear utilization target selection (NUTS)
- Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP)
- Force de frappe
- Game theory & wargaming
- Assured destruction
- Bernard Brodie
- Herman Kahn
- Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964), a film satirizing nuclear strategy.
- Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations
Further reading
Baylis, John, and John Garnett. Makers of Nuclear Strategy. London: Pinter, 1991. ISBN 1855670259.Brodie, Bernard. The Absolute Weapon. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1946.
Brodie, Bernard. Strategy in the Missile Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959.
Freedman, Lawrence. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. ISBN 0333972392 .
Kahn, Herman. On Thermonuclear War. 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961.
Kaplan, Fred M. The Wizards of Armageddon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. ISBN 0671424440.
Kissinger, Henry A. Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. New York: Harper, 1957.
Rosenberg, David. "The Origins of Overkill: Nuclear Weapons and American Strategy, 1945-1960." International Security 7, 4 (Spring, 1983): 3-71.
Schelling, Thomas C. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960.
Schelling, Thomas C. Arms and Influence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.
Smoke, Richard. National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993. ISBN 0070593523.
Wohlstetter, Albert. "The Delicate Balance of Terror." Foreign Affairs 37, 211 (1958): 211-233.
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