Nuclear Weapons In The Cold War Essay

Nuclear weapons in the Cold War changed how wars were fought because it was the beginning of an era where wars were no longer fought in the conventional sense. The creation of nuclear weapons meant that people lived in a constant state of fear of nuclear war. In order to ensure national security and protection states, primarily the United States and Russia the leading superpowers in the Cold War, needed to have a strong deterrence policy to prevent the other state from launching a nuclear attack. In theory deterrence is an effective approach as it prevents nuclear war and states are successfully able to protect themselves and are therefore not viewed as vulnerable. The film “Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the
Deterrence is “achieved not through the ability to defend but through the ability to punish” (Waltz, 5). Deterrence is effective because states use the approach to punish others if they are ever attacked. Threatening is an effective approach because it sends a strong and clear message regarding a state’s intentions if its security is ever jeopardized. Nuclear weapons help preserve security through deterrence, but credibility is required to establish second-strike capability. Deterrence is effective if it meets three requirements “[f]irst, at least a part of a state’s nuclear forces must appear to survive an attack and launch one of its own. Second, survival of forces must not require early firing in response to what may be false alarms. Third, command and control must be reliably maintained; weapons must not be susceptible to accidental or unauthorized use” (20). To help control and stabilize nuclear weapons they must be kept close to reliable people and guarded with extreme caution. The movie shows how deterrence breaks down because an authorized general makes the decision to launch a nuclear attack. In doing so the general’s actions have caused a lot of confusion, chaos and