Nuclear First Strike-Have the Rules Changed?
Abstract
This paper considers the morality of a first strike attack against a nonstate terrorist organization that possesses nuclear weapon capability. Nuclear first strike is the policy that reserves the right to use nuclear weapons against an enemy before that enemy employs a like weapon without any constraints on the decision to employ the weapon. First strike has been part of the strategies on nuclear weapon use since the earliest debates on nuclear arms, when the United States was the only nuclear power (Brodie, "The Atomic Dilemma," 32). For the purposes of this paper, first strike is expanded to include the use of conventional weapons to attack a terrorist-controlled nuclear weapon that would result in nuclear casualties either from the detonation of a nuclear bomb or fallout from a nuclear dirty bomb.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA493693
Entities
People
- Rosemary M. Carter
Organizations
- University of Texas at Austin