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Nuclear, or atomic warfare, is battle in which nuclear weapons are used. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Prehistoric warfare is War conducted in the era before Writing, and before the establishments of large social entities like States Historical warfare sets Ancient warfare is War as conducted from the beginnings of recorded History to the end of the ancient period Medieval Warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe technological cultural and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of Gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive Industrial warfare is a period in the History of warfare ranging roughly from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the Information Age Modern warfare, although present in every Historical period of Military history, is generally used to refer to the concepts, methods and Battlespace is a unified strategy to integrate and combine Armed forces for the Military theatre of operations, including air, information Air power redirects here for electrical and mechanical energy supplied by air movement see Wind power Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent Land warfare, sometimes also called ground combat is the term used to describe military operations eventuating in Combat that take place predominantly on the land surface of Naval warfare is Combat in and on Seas Oceans or any other major bodies of water such as large Lakes and wide Rivers History Space warfare is combat that takes place in Outer space, ie outside the Atmosphere. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of Armoured fighting vehicles in Modern warfare. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine Biological warfare (BW — known as a germ warfare, biological weapons and bioweaponry — is the use of any Pathogen ( Bacterium The Cavalry (from French cavalerie) is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as Soldiers or Warriors who fought mounted on Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. Electronic warfare ( EW) is the use of the Electromagnetic spectrum to effectively deny the use of this medium by an adversary while optimizing its use by friendly The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The US Department of Defense defines psychological warfare ( PSYWAR) as" The planned use of Propaganda and other Psychological actions Military tactics ( Greek: Taktikē, the art of organizing an army are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating This article is about the military strategy For the Israeli-Egyptian conflict see War of Attrition, for the game theoretical model see War of attrition (game Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes raids etc Maneuver warfare, also spelled manoeuvre warfare, is the term used by military theorists for a concept of Warfare that advocates attempting to Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static Military strategy is a National defence policy implemented by Military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals Derived from the Greek Economic warfare is the term for economic policies followed as a part of Military operations during Wartime The purpose of economic warfare is to capture Grand strategy is military Strategy at the level of movement and use of an entire Nation state or Empire 's resources A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in Armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military Logistics is the art and science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces This article lists military technology items devices and methods Materiel (from the French "matériel" for equipment or hardware related to the word Material) is a term used in English to refer to the Military supply chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services The broad This is an index to articles listing Battles. List of battles (alphabetical gives a global list See also Military History Antiquity Albania Agron ( 250 BC - 230 BC) The first king to unite the Illyrian This is a list of missions operations and projects Missions in support of other missions are not listed independently A Siege is a prolonged Military Assault and Blockade on a City or Fortress with the intent of conquering by force or Attrition See also List of military writers. Friedrich von Bernhardi Ivan Bloch John Boyd, inventor of the OODA Loop This is a listing of lists of Wars, sorted by country date region and type of conflict This article lists and summarizes War crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907. There is a bewildering array of Weapons far more than would be useful in list form This is a list of military writers, alphabetical by last name A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. This has only happened once - the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States of America against the Empire of Japan very shortly before the end of the Pacific War in World War II. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku The Pacific War was the part of World War II —and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands and in East Asia, between World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Today the term usually refers to confrontations in which opposing sides are both armed with nuclear weapons. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare is much more destructive in both range coverage and extent of damage, and has long-term, severe, damaging effects that can last decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack. ^[1][2]

Contents 1 Types of nuclear war 2 History 2.1 Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk 2.2 The 1950s 2.3 The 1960s 2.4 The 1970s 2.5 The 1980s 2.6 Post-Cold War 2.7 Potential consequences of a regional nuclear war 2.8 Sub-strategic use 3 Nuclear terrorism 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

Types of nuclear war

The possibility of using nuclear weapons in war is usually divided into two subgroups, each with different effects and potentially fought with different types of nuclear armaments.

The first, a limited nuclear war (sometimes attack or exchange), refers to a small scale use of nuclear weapons by one or more parties. A "limited nuclear war" would most likely consist of a limited exchange between two nuclear superpowers targeting each other's military facilities, either as an attempt to pre-emptively cripple the enemy's ability to attack as a defensive measure or as a prelude to an invasion by conventional forces as an offensive measure. It will also refer to a nuclear war between minor nuclear powers, who lack the ability to deliver a decisive strike. This term would apply to any limited use of nuclear weapons, which may involve either military or civilian targets.

The second, a full-scale nuclear war, consists of large numbers of weapons used in an attack aimed at an entire country, including both military and civilian targets. Such an attack would seek to destroy the entire economic, social, and military infrastructure of a nation by means of an overwhelming nuclear attack.

Some Cold War strategists argued that a limited nuclear war could be possible between two heavily armed superpowers (such as the United States and the Soviet Union) and if so several predicted that a limited war could "escalate" into an all-out war. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Conflict escalation describes the Escalation of a Conflict to a more destructive confrontational painful or otherwise "less comfortable" level in Others have called limited nuclear war "global nuclear holocaust in slow motion" arguing that once such a war took place others would be sure to follow over a period of decades, effectively rendering the planet uninhabitable in the same way that a "full-scale nuclear war" between superpowers would, only taking a much longer and more agonizing path to achieve the same result.

Even the most optimistic predictions of the effects of a major nuclear exchange foresee the death of millions of civilians within a very short amount of time; more pessimistic predictions argue that a full-scale nuclear war could bring about the extinction of the human race or its near extinction with a handful of survivors (mainly in remote areas) reduced to a pre-medieval quality of life and life expectancy for centuries after and cause permanent damage to most complex life on the planet, Earth's ecosystems, and the global climate, particularly if predictions of nuclear winter are accurate. Human Extinction is the assured end of the Human Species. Various scenarios have been discussed in Science, Popular culture, and Religion Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining at a given age Nuclear winter is a term that describes the climatic effects of nuclear war. It is in this latter mode that nuclear warfare is usually alluded to as a doomsday scenario. A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction &mdash usually a weapon &mdash which could destroy all life on the Earth, or destroy the Earth itself (bringing "

A third category, not usually included with the above two, is accidental nuclear war, in which a nuclear war is triggered unintentionally. Possible scenarios for this have included malfunctioning early warning devices and targeting computers, deliberate malfeasance by rogue military commanders, accidental straying of planes into enemy airspace, reactions to unannounced missile tests during tense diplomatic periods, reactions to military exercises, mistranslated or miscommunicated messages, and so forth. A number of these scenarios did actually occur during the Cold War, though none resulted in a nuclear exchange. ^[3] Many such scenarios have been depicted in popular culture, such as in the 1962 novel Fail-Safe (released as a film in 1964) and the film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, also released in 1964. Since their public debut in August 1945 Nuclear weapons and their potential effects have been a recurring motif in Popular culture Fail-Safe is a Novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, published in 1962.

History

Main article: History of nuclear weapons

Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk

The United States is the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons during war, using two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The Japanese city of ( is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest of Japan 's ( is the Capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. For more information, see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at

After the bombings of Japan, it was unclear exactly what status the atomic bomb would have for international relations or military actions. It was believed that atomic weapons could offset the superior forces that the Soviet Union had in Eastern Europe, and possibly be used to pressure Soviet leader Joseph Stalin into concessions. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Despite Stalin's palpable fear of the bomb, he too was pursuing his own atomic capabilities at full speed. The Soviets believed that the Americans were unlikely to begin another world war with their limited nuclear arsenal and the Americans were not confident that they could prevent the Soviet Union from taking over Europe even if they did use nuclear weapons. As such, they were not as strong a bargaining chip as was hoped by the Americans.

Within the United States the authority to produce and develop nuclear weapons was removed from the military control of the Manhattan Project and put instead under the civilian control of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, a unique move which attempted to recognize that nuclear weapons represented a special category of weapons separate from other military technology. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control

For several years after World War II, the US developed and maintained a strategic force based on the Convair B-36 bomber that would be able to attack any potential enemy from bomber bases in the US. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including A bomber is a Military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets primarily by dropping Bombs on them It deployed atomic bombs around the world for potential use in conflicts. Over a period of a few years, many in the US defense community became increasingly convinced of the invincibility of the United States to a nuclear attack. Indeed, it became generally believed that the threat of nuclear war would deter any strike against the United States.

Many proposals were suggested to put all US nuclear weapons under international control—for example, by the newly formed United Nations—as an effort to deter both their usage and an arms race. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security However no terms could be arrived at that made either the United States or the USSR feel secure—the US was not willing to give up its atomic monopoly, and the USSR did not trust UN inspections on its soil.

On August 29, 1949 the USSR tested its first nuclear weapon at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (see also Soviet atomic bomb project). Events 708 - Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708) Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union 's Nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan ( Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, qɑzɑqˈstɑn Казахстан, Kazakhstán,) officially the The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb began during World War II in the Soviet Union. Scientists in the United States from the Manhattan Project had warned that, in time, the Soviet Union would certainly develop nuclear capabilities of its own. Nevertheless, the effect upon military thinking and planning in the US was dramatic, primarily due to the fact that American military strategists had not anticipated the Soviets would "catch up" so soon. However, at this time, they had not discovered that the Russians had conducted significant espionage of the project from spies at Los Alamos, the most significant of which was done by the theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs. Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs ( December 29, 1911 &ndash January 28, 1988) was a German -born theoretical physicist and The first Soviet bomb was more or less a deliberate copy of the Fat Man device. "Fat Man" is the codename for the Atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9

With the monopoly over nuclear technology broken, world-wide nuclear proliferation accelerated. The United Kingdom tested its first independent atomic bomb in 1952, followed by France in 1960 and then the People's Republic of China in 1964. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES While much smaller than the arsenals of the USA and the USSR, Western Europe's nuclear reserves were nevertheless a significant factor in strategic planning during the Cold War. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the A top-secret white paper produced for the British Government in 1959, compiled by the Royal Air Force, estimated that British atomic bombers were capable of destroying key cities and military targets in the Soviet Union, with an estimated 16 million deaths in the USSR (half of whom were estimated to be killed on impact and the rest fatally injured) before bomber aircraft from the United States' Strategic Air Command reached their targets. A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them The Strategic Air Command (SAC was both a major command and a "specified command" in the U

The 1950s

Though the USSR had nuclear weapon capabilities in the beginning of the Cold War, the US still had an advantage in terms of bombers and weapons. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the In any exchange of hostilities, the US would have been capable of bombing the USSR, while the USSR would have more difficulties arranging the reverse.

The widespread introduction of jet-powered interceptor aircraft upset this balance somewhat by reducing the effectiveness of the US bomber fleet. specific --->A jet engine is a Reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet of Fluid to An interceptor aircraft (or simply interceptor) is a type of Fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy Aircraft, particularly In 1949 Curtis LeMay was placed in command of the Strategic Air Command and instituted a program to update the bomber fleet to one that was all-jet. Curtis Emerson LeMay (15 November 1906–3 October 1990 was a General in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent The Strategic Air Command (SAC was both a major command and a "specified command" in the U During the early 1950s the B-47 and B-52 were introduced, providing the ability to bomb the USSR more easily. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

Before the development of a capable strategic missile force in the Soviet Union, much of the war-fighting doctrine held by western nations revolved around using a large number of smaller nuclear weapons used in a tactical role. A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled explosive Projectile used as a weapon towards a target The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 It is arguable if such use could be considered "limited" however, because it was believed that the US would use their own strategic weapons (mainly bombers at the time) should the USSR deploy any kind of nuclear weapon against civilian targets. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A bomber is a Military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets primarily by dropping Bombs on them Douglas MacArthur, an American general, was fired by President Harry Truman, partially because he persistently requested permission to use his own discretion in deciding whether to use atomic weapons on the People's Republic of China in 1951 (as the Korean War was raging). General MacArthur redirects here for other meanings see General MacArthur (disambiguation. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the ^[4]

Several scares about the increasing ability of the USSR's strategic bomber forces surfaced during the 1950s. The defensive response by the US was to deploy a fairly strong layered defense consisting of interceptor aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles, like the Nike, and guns, like the Skysweeper, near larger cities. An interceptor aircraft (or simply interceptor) is a type of Fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy Aircraft, particularly Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging hostile military Aircraft in defence of ground objectives, ground or naval forces A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled explosive Projectile used as a weapon towards a target Project Nike was a US Army project proposed in May 1945 by Bell Labs, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system A gun is a particular Weapon that propels Projectiles The projectile is generally fired through a hollow tube known as the gun's barrel. Skysweeper, technically Gun M51 Antiaircraft, was an American 75 mm anti-aircraft Gun deployed in the early 1950s by both the However this was a small response compared to the construction of a huge fleet of nuclear bombers. The principal nuclear strategy was to massively penetrate the USSR. Because such a large area could not be defended against this overwhelming attack in any credible way, the USSR would lose any exchange.

This logic became ingrained in US nuclear doctrine and persisted for the duration of the Cold War. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the As long as the strategic US nuclear forces could overwhelm their USSR counterparts, a Soviet preemptive strike could be averted. Moreover, the USSR could not afford to build any reasonable counterforce as the economic output of the United States was far larger than that of the Soviets, and they would be unable to achieve nuclear parity.

Soviet nuclear doctrine, however, did not match US nuclear doctrine. Soviet planning expected a large-scale nuclear exchange followed by a conventional war which itself would involve heavy use of tactical nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, US doctrine rather assumed that Soviet doctrine was similar—the mutual in Mutually Assured Destruction necessarily requiring that the other side see things in much the same way, rather than believing, as the Soviets did, that they could and would fight a large-scale, combined nuclear and conventional war. With the US believing they had understood Soviet doctrine but in fact had not and were therefore mis-perceiving Soviet signals and mis-predicting Soviet behaviour, this was one of the greatest errors and dangers of the Cold War.

A revolution in nuclear strategic thought occurred with the introduction of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the USSR first successfully tested in May 1957. In order to deliver a warhead to a target, a missile was more cost-effective than a bomber, and enjoyed a higher survivability due to the enormous difficulty (perhaps impossibility) of interception of the ICBMs due to their high altitude and speed. Typically a warhead is the Explosive material and Detonator that is delivered by a Missile, Rocket, or Torpedo. A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled explosive Projectile used as a weapon towards a target The USSR could now afford to achieve nuclear parity with the US in terms of raw numbers, although for a time they appeared to have chosen not to.

Photos of Soviet missile sites set off a wave of panic in the US military, something the launch of Sputnik would do for the public a few months later. Politicians, notably then-US Senator John Kennedy suggested a "missile gap" between the Soviets and the US. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Missile Gap is a 2006 Science fiction Novella originally published in the anthology "One Million AD" by British author The US military gave missile development programs the highest national priority, and several spy aircraft and reconnaissance satellites were designed and deployed to check on Soviet progress. Surveillance aircraft are military Aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity usually carrying no armament A spy satellite (officially referred to as a reconnaissance satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or Communications satellite deployed for

The 1960s

Issues came to a head during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War. The Soviet Union placed medium range missiles ninety miles from the US—a move considered by many as a direct response to American Jupiter missiles placed in Turkey; however, these Jupiter missiles were already somewhat obsolete. The PGM-19 Jupiter was a Medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM of the United States Air Force, removed from service by April 1963 After intense negotiation, the Soviets ended up removing the missiles from Cuba and decided to institute a massive building program of their own. In exchange, the US dismantled its launch sites in Turkey although this was done secretly and not publicly revealed for over two decades. Khrushchev did not even reveal this part of the agreement when he came under fire by political opponents for mishandling the crisis. By the late 1960s the number of ICBMs and warheads was so high on both sides that either the USA or USSR was capable of completely destroying the other country's infrastructure. Thus a balance of power system known as mutually assured destruction (MAD) came into being. In International relations, a balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces Mutual assured destruction ( MAD; sometimes written as mutually assured destruction) is a Doctrine of military Strategy in which a full-scale It was thought that any full-scale exchange between the powers could not produce a victorious side and thus neither would risk initiating one.

One drawback of this doctrine was the possibility of a nuclear war occurring without either side intentionally striking first. Early warning systems are notoriously error-prone. On 78 occasions in 1979, for example, a "missile display conference" was called to evaluate detections potentially threatening to the North American continent. Some of these were trivial errors, spotted quickly. But several went to more serious levels. It is claimed that on 26 September 1983, Stanislav Petrov received convincing indications of a US first strike launch against the USSR but positively identified the warning as a false alarm. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Станислав Евграфович Петров (born c Though it is unclear what role Petrov's actions played in preventing a nuclear war, he has been honored by the United Nations for his actions.

Similar incidents happened many times in the US, due to failed computer chips, flights of geese, test programs, bureaucratic failures to notify early warning military personnel of legitimate launches of test or weather missiles. And for many years, US strategic bombers were kept airborne on a rotating basis round the clock until the sheer number and gravity of accidents persuaded policymakers it was not worth it.

The 1970s

By the late 1970s, citizens in the US and USSR (and indeed the entire world) had been living with MAD for about a decade. It became deeply ingrained into the popular culture. Such an exchange would have killed many millions of individuals directly and possibly induced a nuclear winter which could have led to the death of a large portion of humanity and certainly the collapse of global civilization. Nuclear winter is a term that describes the climatic effects of nuclear war.

In May 18, 1974, India conducted its first nuclear test in the Pokhran test range. Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Pokhran (also spelled Pokaran) is a city and a Municipality located in Jaisalmer district The name of the operation was Operation Smiling Buddha and India termed the test as a "peaceful nuclear explosion". The Smiling Buddha was the first nuclear test explosion by India on May 18, 1974 at Pokhran.

According to the 1980 United Nations report General and Complete Disarmament: Comprehensive Study on Nuclear Weapons: Report of the Secretary-General, it was estimated that in total there were approximately 40,000 nuclear warheads in existence at that time with a total yield of approximately 13,000 megatons of TNT. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Trinitrotoluene ( TNT) is a Chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO23CH3 By comparison, when the volcano Mount Tambora erupted in 1815 (turning 1816 into the Year Without A Summer due to the levels of ash expelled), it exploded with a force of roughly 1000 megatons of TNT. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the Mount Tambora (or Tomboro) is an active Stratovolcano, also known as a Composite volcano, on Sumbawa island Indonesia. The Year Without a Summer, also known as the Poverty Year, The Year There Was No Summer or Eighteen hundred and froze to death Many people believed that a full-scale nuclear war could result in the extinction of the human species, though not all analysts agreed on the assumptions required for these models. Human Extinction is the assured end of the Human Species. Various scenarios have been discussed in Science, Popular culture, and Religion

The idea that any nuclear conflict would eventually escalate was a challenge for military strategists. This challenge was particularly severe for the United States and its NATO allies because it was believed until the 1970s that a Soviet tank invasion of Western Europe would quickly overwhelm NATO conventional forces, leading to the necessity of escalating to tactical nuclear weapons. The North Atlantic Treaty A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical

A number of interesting concepts were developed. Early ICBMs were inaccurate, which led to the concept of countervalue strikes—attacks directly on the enemy population leading to a collapse of the enemy's will to fight. Countervalue refers to the targeting of an opponent's cities and civilian populations However, it appears that this was the American interpretation of the Soviet stance while the Soviet strategy was never clearly anti-population. During the Cold War the USSR invested in extensive protected civilian infrastructure such as large nuclear proof bunkers and non-perishable food stores. In the US, by comparison, smaller scale Civil Defense programs were instituted starting in the 1950's where school, and other public buildings had basements stocked with nonperishable food supplies, canned water, first aid, Dosimeter and Geiger Counter radiation measuring devices. Many of the locations were given "Fallout Shelter" designation signs. Also, CONELRAD Radio information systems were adopted, whereby the commercial radio sector would broadcast on two AM frequencies in the event of a CD emergency. These two frequencies can be seen on 50's vintage radios on online auction sites and museums, with many of these radios still in use on tabletops across America. Also, the occasional backyard fallout shelter was built by private individuals.

The US also made a point during this period of targeting their missiles on Russian population centers rather than military targets. If the Soviets attacked first, then there would be no point in destroying empty missile silos that had already launched; the only thing left to hit would be cities. By contrast, if America had gone to great lengths to protect their citizens and targeted the enemy's silos, that might have led the Russians to believe the US was planning a first strike, where they would eliminate Soviet missiles while still in their silos and be able to survive a weakened counter attack in their reinforced bunkers. In this way, both sides were (theoretically) assured that the other would not strike first, and a war without a first strike will not occur.

This strategy had one major and possibly critical flaw, soon realised by military analysts but highly underplayed by the US military: Conventional NATO forces in the European theatre of war were considered to be outnumbered by similar Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces, and while the western countries invested heavily in high-tech conventional weapons to counter this (partly perceived) imbalance, it was assumed that in case of a major Soviet attack (commonly perceived as the "red tanks rolling towards the North Sea" scenario) that NATO, in the face of conventional defeat, would soon have no other choice but to resort to tactical nuclear strikes. The North Atlantic Treaty The Warsaw Pact (see Nomenclature) was an organization of Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. Most analysts agreed that once the first nuclear exchange had occurred, escalation to global nuclear war would become almost inevitable.

So, while official US policy was that nuclear weapons were "weapons of last resort", the reality was that the lack of strength of conventional NATO forces would force the US to either abandon Western Europe or use nuclear weapons in its defense. Official NATO doctrine had been critically flawed from the outset and nuclear war would have been a very real possibility had actual conflict occurred.

This major flaw, although largely ignored by the military community, quickly gathered public interest and many movies and books were based upon this and several other weaknesses in the policy of mutually assured destruction. Mutual assured destruction ( MAD; sometimes written as mutually assured destruction) is a Doctrine of military Strategy in which a full-scale

As missile technology improved, the emphasis moved to counter-force strikes: ones that directly attacked the enemy's means of waging war. This was the predominant doctrine from the late 1960s onwards. Additionally the development of warheads (at least in the US) moved towards delivering a small explosive force more accurately and with a "cleaner" blast (with fewer long-lasting radioactive isotopes). Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable Atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing particles and Radiation. Isotopes (Greek isos = "equal" tópos = "site place" are any of the different types of atoms ( Nuclides In any conflict therefore, damage would have been initially limited to military targets, there may well have been "withholds" for targets near civilian areas. The argument was that the destruction of a city would be a military advantage to the attacked. The enemy had used up weapons and a threat in the destruction while the attacked was relieved of the need to defend the city and still had their entire military potential untouched.

Only if a nuclear conflict were extended into a number of "spasm" strikes would direct strikes against civilians occur, as the more accurate weapons would be expended early; if one side were "losing", the potential for using less accurate submarine-launched missiles would occur. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability

The 1980s

There was a growing shift to the USSR which was slowly gaining an advantage in terms of weapons.

Another major shift in nuclear doctrine was the development of the submarine-launched ballistic (nuclear) missile, the SLBM. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability Submarine-launched ballistic missiles or SLBM s are Ballistic missiles delivering Nuclear weapons that are launched from Submarines Modern variants It was hailed by some military theorists as a weapon that would make nuclear war less likely. SLBMs, which can move with stealth virtually anywhere in the world, give a nation a "second strike" capability. Before the advent of SLBMs, thinkers feared that a nation might be tempted to initiate a first strike if it felt confident that such a strike would incapacitate the nuclear arsenal of its enemy, making retaliation impossible. With the advent of SLBMs, no nation could be certain that a first strike would incapacitate its enemy's entire nuclear arsenal. To the contrary, it would have to fear a retaliatory second strike from SLBMs. Thus a first strike was much less of a feasible option, and nuclear war was held to be less likely.

However, it was soon realized that submarines could "sneak up" close to enemy coastlines and decrease the warning time—the time between detection of the launch and impact of the missile—from as much as half an hour to under three minutes. This effect was especially significant to the United States, Britain, and China, with their capitals all within 100 miles (160 km) of their coasts. Moscow was more secure from this type of threat. This greatly increased the credibility of a "surprise first strike" by one of the factions and theoretically made it possible to knock out or disrupt the chain of command before a counterstrike could be ordered. In a Military context the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders are passed within a Military unit and between different It strengthened the notion that a nuclear war could be "won", resulting not only in greatly increased tension, and increasing calls for fail-deadly control systems, but also in a dramatic increase in military spending. Fail-deadly is a concept in nuclear Military strategy which encourages deterrence by guaranteeing an immediate automatic and overwhelming response The submarines and their missile systems were very expensive (one fully equipped nuclear powered nuclear missile submarine could easily cost more than the entire GNP of a third world nation)^[5], but the greatest cost came in the development of both sea- and land-based anti-submarine defenses and in improving and strengthening the chain of command. Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically As a result, military spending skyrocketed.

Post-Cold War

Although the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War and greatly reduced tensions between the United States and Russia, both nations remained in a "nuclear stand-off" due to the continuing presence of a significant number of warheads in both nations. Additionally, the end of the Cold War led the United States to become increasingly concerned with the development of nuclear technology by other nations outside of the former Soviet Union. In 1995, a branch of the U. S. Strategic Command produced an outline of forward-thinking strategies in the document "Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence". " Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence " is a document produced in 1995 as a "Terms of Reference" by the Policy Subcommittee of the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG of

The former chair of the United Nations disarmament committee states there are more than 16,000 strategic and tactical nuclear weapons ready for deployment and another 14,000 in storage. The U. S. has nearly 7,000 ready for action and 3,000 in storage and Russia has about 8,500 on hand and 11,000 in storage, he said. China has 400 nuclear weapons, Britain 400, France 350, India 95, and Pakistan 50. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and North Korea is confirmed as having nuclear weapons, though it is not known how many (a common estimate is between 1 and 10). North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, Also, despite denials, Israel is also widely believed to have nuclear weapons. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Israel is widely believed to be the sixth country in the world to develop Nuclear weapons and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized NATO has stationed 480 U. S. nuclear weapons in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Turkey, with several other countries in pursuit of an arsenal of their own (1).

A key development in nuclear warfare in the 2000s has been the proliferation of nuclear weapons to the developing world, with Pakistan and India both publicly testing nuclear devices and North Korea conducting an underground nuclear test on October 9, 2006. Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of Nuclear weapons, fissile material and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations Developing countries are countries that haven't reached Western-style standards of democratic government free market economy industrialization social programs and human rights guaranties Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The U. S. Geological Survey measured a 4. 2 magnitude earthquake in the area where the test occurred. Iran, meanwhile, has embarked on a nuclear program which, while officially for civilian purposes, has come under scrutiny by the United Nations and individual states. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics.

Recent studies undertaken by the CIA cite the enduring India-Pakistan conflict as the most likely to escalate into nuclear war. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all During the Kargil War in 1999, Pakistan came close to using their nuclear weapons in case of further deterioration. The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July (BBC) In fact, Pakistan's foreign minister had even warned that they would "use any weapon in our arsenal", hinting at a nuclear strike against India; the statement was condemned by the international community with Pakistan denying it later on. It remains the only war between two declared nuclear powers.

The 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff again stoked fears of nuclear war between the two countries.

Despite these very serious threats, relations between India and Pakistan have been improving somewhat over the last few years. A bus line directly linking Indian and Pakistani administered Kashmir has recently been established.

Another flashpoint which has analysts worried is a possible conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China over Taiwan. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. Although economic forces have decreased the possibility of military conflict, there remains the worry that increasing military buildup and a move toward Taiwan independence could spin out of control. Taiwan independence ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Tâi-oân To̍k-li̍p ūn-tōng abbreviated to 台獨 Táidú Tâi-to̍k is a

A third potential flashpoint lies in the Middle East, where Israel is thought to possess between one and four hundred nuclear warheads (this has never been officially confirmed by Israel; however, Mordechai Vanunu, the former nuclear technician on whose 1986 revelations much of the above is based, was kidnapped by Mossad agents from Italy, spent 18 years in detention on charges of "grave espionage", and is still forbidden to leave Israel and is subject to severe restrictions—which tends to lend credence to what he told the British Sunday Times). The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Mordechai Vanunu (מרדכי ואנונו born in Marrakech, Morocco on October 13 1954 is an Israeli former nuclear The Mossad ( HaMossad leModi'in v'leTafkidim Meyuhadim) (המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים - Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Sunday Times is a Sunday Broadsheet Newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Further, persistent rumors in the international press (likewise never confirmed by Israel) assert that the submarines which Israel received from Germany have been adapted to carry missiles with nuclear warheads, so as to give Israel a Second strike capacity. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. In Nuclear strategy, second strike capability is a country's assured ability to respond to a nuclear attack with powerful nuclear retaliation against the attacker Israel has been involved in wars with its neighbours on numerous occasions, and its small geographic size would mean that in the event of future wars the Israeli military might have very little time to react to a future invasion or other major threat; the situation could escalate to nuclear warfare very quickly in some scenarios. In addition, the fact that Iran appears to many observers to be in the process of developing a nuclear weapon has heightened fears of a nuclear conflict in the Middle East, either with Israel or with Iran's Sunni neighbours. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. Sunni Islam is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h (Arabic

Potential consequences of a regional nuclear war

A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2006 asserted that even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more. The American Geophysical Union (or AGU) is a nonprofit organization of Geophysicists consisting of over 50000 members from over 135 countries World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In a regional nuclear conflict scenario where two opposing nations in the subtropics would each use 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons (ca. The subtropics are the zones of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropic zone which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of 15 kiloton each) on major populated centers, the researchers estimated fatalities from 2. 6 million to 16. 7 million per country. Also, as much as five million tons of soot would be released, which would produce a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America and Eurasia, including most of the grain-growing regions. For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The cooling would last for years and could be "catastrophic" according to the researchers. [1]

Sub-strategic use

The above examples envisage nuclear warfare at a strategic level, i. e. total war. Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal However, many nuclear powers are believed to have the ability to launch more limited engagements.

The United Kingdom has reserved the possibility of launching a sub-strategic nuclear strike against an enemy, described by its Parliamentary Defence Select Committee as "the launch of one or a limited number of missiles against an adversary as a means of conveying a political message, warning or demonstration of resolve". The Defence Committee is one of the Select Committees of the British House of Commons, having been established in 1979 This would see the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons in a very limited role rather than the battlefield exchanges of tactical nuclear weapons. A strategic nuclear weapon refers to a Nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on targets as part of a strategic plan such as nuclear Missile locations military A tactical nuclear weapon (or TNW) refers to a Nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations

British Trident SSBN submarines are believed to carry some missiles for this purpose, potentially allowing a strike as low as one kiloton against a single target. Design The Vanguard s were designed from the outset as an unlimited-range nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine unlike the previous ''Resolution'' class A ballistic missile submarine is a Submarine equipped to launch Ballistic missiles ( SLBMs) Units of mass There are three similar units of Mass called the ton: Long ton (simply ton in countries such as the United Former Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind argued that this capacity offset the reduced credibility of fullscale strategic nuclear attack following the end of the Cold War. Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC (born 21 June 1946 is a British Conservative Politician and Member of Parliament for

Commodore Tim Hare, former Director of Nuclear Policy at the UK's Ministry of Defence, has described it as offering the Government "an extra option in the escalatory process before it goes for an all-out strategic strike which would deliver unacceptable damage" [2]. The Ministry of Defence ( MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters

However, this sub-strategic capacity has been criticised as potentially increasing the acceptability of using nuclear weapons. The related consideration of new generations of limited yield battlefield nuclear weapons by the United States has also alarmed anti-nuclear groups, who believe it will make the use of nuclear weapons more acceptable.

Nuclear terrorism

Main article: Nuclear terrorism

Nuclear terrorism by non-state organizations is an unknown factor in nuclear deterrence thinking, as states possessing nuclear weapons are susceptible to retaliation in kind, but sub- or trans-state actors are not. Nuclear terrorism denotes the use or threat of the use of Nuclear weapons or Radiological weapons in acts of Terrorism, including attacks against facilities Nuclear terrorism denotes the use or threat of the use of Nuclear weapons or Radiological weapons in acts of Terrorism, including attacks against facilities The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the possibility that former Soviet nuclear weapons might become available on the black market (so-called 'loose nukes'), while no warheads are known to be have been mislaid, it has been alleged that suitcase-size bombs might be unaccounted for. A suitcase bomb is a Bomb which uses a Suitcase as its delivery method A similar threat may exist via so-called dirty bombs. The term dirty bomb is primarily used to refer to a radiological dispersal device ( RDD) a speculative Radiological weapon which combines Radioactive

References

See also

• Atomic Age
• Deterrence theory
• Doomsday clock
• Doomsday event
• Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
• No first use policy
• Nuclear holocaust
• Nuclear War (card game)
• Nuclear weapons in popular culture
• Square Leg
• Strategic Defense Initiative
• Survivalism
• Weapon of mass destruction
• World War III
• Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
• Causes of hypothetical future disasters

External links

• The Effects of Nuclear War (1979) — handbook produced by the United States Office of Technology Assessment (hosted by the Federation of American Scientists)
• Nuclear War Survival Skills (1979/1987) — handbook produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (use menu at left to navigate)
• Nuclear News at HavenWorks. The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb This article refers to deterrent theories of punishment For the legal theory of justice see Deterrence (legal. The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University A doomsday event is a specific occurrence which has an exceptionally destructive effect on the human race " Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence " is a document produced in 1995 as a "Terms of Reference" by the Policy Subcommittee of the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the forces of man's destruction described in the Christian Bible in chapter six of the Book of Revelation. Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons was an Advisory opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ on 8 July No first use refers to a pledge not to use Nuclear weapons as a means of warfare unless first attacked by an adversary using nuclear weapons Nuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of nearly complete annhilation of human Civilization by Nuclear warfare. Nuclear War is a Card game designed by Douglas Malewicki, and originally published in 1965. Since their public debut in August 1945 Nuclear weapons and their potential effects have been a recurring motif in Popular culture Square leg is also a fielding position in cricket see Fielding (cricket. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI was a proposal by US President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect Survivalism is a commonly used term for the Preparedness strategy and subculture of individuals or groups anticipating and making preparations for future possible disruptions A weapon of mass destruction ( WMD) is a weapon which can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e World War III (also WWIII, or Third World War) denotes a successor to World War II (1939&ndash1945 that would be on a global scale with This is about the future of civilization humans and the earth A disaster is the impact of a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. The Federation of American Scientists ( FAS) is a non-profit organization formed in 1945 by scientists from the Manhattan Project who felt that scientists engineers Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL) is a multiprogram science and technology National laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by com
• Ground Zero: A Javascript simulation of the effects of a nuclear explosion in a city
• British RAF manual on the effects of nuclear explosions dated 1955
• 20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War by Alan F. Philips, M. D.
• US Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations
• Nuclear Files.org Interactive Timeline of the Nuclear Age
• Annotated bibliography on nuclear warfare from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• DeVolpi, Alexander, Vladimir E. Minkov, Vadim A. Simonenko, and George S. Stanford. 2004. Nuclear Shadowboxing: Contemporary Threats from Cold War Weaponry, Vols. 1 and 2. Fidlar Doubleday.

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