How Many Nukes Does it Take?

Most scholars and policymakers favor stemming the tide of nuclear proliferation, even as they acknowledge the pacifying effects of established nuclear arsenals on great power relations. When it comes to nuclear arsenals, how robust must a country's nuclear arsenal be--how much is enough? Some of the key variables in existing studies - e.g., the nuclear "balance of power" - have been poorly conceived, and the data used to measure the nuclear balance and its effect on policy has come from suspect sources. High quality declassified evidence began to percolate just as the Cold War ended and analysts turned their attention to seemingly more important topics.

With an eye toward future potential problems in the U.S.-China relationship, Keir Lieber and Daryl Press will evaluate four major schools of deterrence theory with some of the newly available evidence from the Cold War. Their preliminary findings indicate that we should not be complacent about the deterrent effects of the short-to-medium term nuclear balance between the U.S. and China.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• United
• States
• China
• Russia
• Nuclear
• Arsenal
• Deterrent
• Engagement
• Standoff

[aaronsdavis]

What i dont understand about first strike is why it is assumed u can hit an enemies silos before they launch. Surely they could detect incoming missles at some point in the trajectory and launch; also, wouldnt satelites detect the first strike being launched basically as the missles left the silos? If anyone knows about this stuff a response would be much appreciated :)

[mrboejangles2]

@MrNukesftw lol i was REALLY tired when i typed that i had no idea wat i was talking about i think i was trying to get at there would still be surviors or sumthing i dont remeber i was tired and i think i remember comments i saw on another video and i add some things i tought on those comments

[MrNukesftw]

@mrboejangles2 Do you understand the yield of a nuclear weapon that would be used during a all-out all in war? The weapons used would be in the megaton's considering they would have to launch it from a silo, since there are no oceans near Las Vegas. A 20 megaton bomb would take out the whole map of Fallout new vegas, So would a 5 megaton bomb. And if it was a all out war the nations involved would launch somewhere near 1/3rd of their arsenal.

[mrboejangles2]

@MrNukesftw not saying fallout is realistic and this is to KGzCLAN too but if you are really worried if fallout is realistic. New Vegas is more there las vegas wasnt bomb yes they droped multiple bombs at once but they didnt like line it up and drop 1 every 12 miles AND some where duds. So really i guess im saying there would most likely be survivors due to dud,bombs,incorrect drops, ETC. SOO fallout is a little correct but whatever im just typing u no. but yeaaa.

[MrNukesftw]

@KGzCLAN Fallout 3 isnt realistic, if you drop 30-40 nukes in a year. You will under go nuclear winter. Which would kill billions

[KGzCLAN]

well. im no expert.... infact im nowhere near,

but ive got a game called fallout 3, and apparently as it is said, "as the BOMBS fell" withan 's' imlying that many more than one bomb was dropped.. and even twohundered years after the bombs fell the world, wasnt over.

[ManicParroT]

Tsar Bomba was an extremely "clean" explosion, with very little fallout relative to its size. You're just making ungrounded assertions, since you haven't established A) how much fallout would be needed to end life and B) how much fallout a large nuclear weapon creates.

Show me the citations and the numbers.

[fobos101]

And by me talking about destroying the world I'm am mearly talking about a mass extinction of species because destroying something that that is so huge 197,060,800 miles^2 in fact would be impossible

[fobos101]

ok think about it, the largest ever nuclear device detonated was the Tsar-Bomb was 50 megatons, there are 7 continents planting 12 of these strategically would wipe out the world not in the actual damage caused but by the nuclear winter endued but the radioactive fall out.

[ManicParroT]

@fobos101 that's simply not true.

Scores and scores of nuclear weapons have been tested since the first nuclear bomb was built. There's simply no way 12 nuclear weapons would destroy the entire world, and I'd love to see the data that you base that claim on.