SDI: A Strategy for Peace and Stability or the End to Deterrence
Abstract
Since the advent of the nuclear age, humanity has existed and "progressed" in a politico-military climate increasingly threatened by the possibility of instant annihilation. The prevailing condition now is one on which two superpowers possess and control the means, many times over, to terminate life as we know it on this planet. The nuclear capacities of the United States and the Soviet Union alone equate to roughly two and one half tons of dynamite for each person on the earth. In this bipolar world, in which the antithetical political ideologies of the two superpowers continually and almost daily conflict with each other at varying levels of intensity, a state of mutual nuclear fear has also existed. Although it cannot be empirically proved, it appears that this state of mutual fear (i.e. the fear that one national would inflict a nuclear counterstrike of unacceptably devastating proportion against the other, should the other strike first) has successfully ensured that to date these weapons of mass destruction have not been used to settle political differences. This threat of retaliation, in several variations, has become the bedrock of a general philosophy (I hesitate to say strategy) referred to as "deterrence".
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA517672
Entities
People
- David E. Windmiller
Organizations
- United States Army War College