Nuclear warfare,also known as atomic warfare,is a military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction;in contrast to conventional warfare,nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time and can have a long-lasting radiological result. A major nuclear exchange would likely have long-term effects,primarily from the fallout released,and could also lead to secondary effects,such as "nuclear winter",nuclear famine,and societal collapse. A global thermonuclear war with Cold War-era stockpiles,or even with the current smaller stockpiles,may lead to various scenarios including the human extinction.
In nuclear ethics and deterrence theory,no first use (NFU) refers to a type of pledge or policy wherein a nuclear power formally refrains from the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in warfare,except for as a second strike in retaliation to an attack by an enemy power using WMD. Such a pledge would allow for a unique state of affairs in which a given nuclear power can be engaged in a conflict of conventional weaponry while it formally forswears any of the strategic advantages of nuclear weapons,provided the enemy power does not possess or utilize any such weapons of their own. The concept is primarily invoked in reference to nuclear mutually assured destruction but has also been applied to chemical and biological warfare,as is the case of the official WMD policy of India.
Relations between North Korea and the United States have been historically hostile. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Instead,they have adopted an indirect diplomatic arrangement using neutral intermediaries. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang is the US protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens. North Korea,officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),does not have an embassy in Washington,DC,but is represented in the United States through its mission to the United Nations in New York City which serves as North Korea's de facto embassy.
The People's Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction,including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964,and its first hydrogen bomb test occurred in 1966 at Lop Nur. Tests continued until 1996,when the country signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),but did not ratify it. China acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984 and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997.
In the context of global politics,a policy of deliberate ambiguity is the practice by a government or non-state actor of being deliberately ambiguous with regard to all or certain aspects of its operational or positional policies. This is typically a way to avoid direct conflict while maintaining a masked more assertive or threatening position on a subject.
Deterrence theory refers to the scholarship and practice of how threats of using force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some other course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy during the Cold War with regard to the use of nuclear weapons and is related to but distinct from the concept of mutual assured destruction,according to which a full-scale nuclear attack on a power with second-strike capability would devastate both parties. The central problem of deterrence revolves around how to credibly threaten military action or nuclear punishment on the adversary despite its costs to the deterrer. Deterrence in an international relations context is the application of deterrence theory to avoid conflict.
Jon Wolfsthal is an American security analyst currently serving as director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists.
The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a process “to determine what the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security strategy should be.”NPRs are the primary document for determining U.S. strategy for nuclear weapons and it outlines an overview of U.S. nuclear capabilities,changes to current stockpiles and capabilities,plans for deterrence,and plans for arms control policy with other nations.
Graham Tillett Allison Jr. is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is known for his contributions in the late 1960s and early 1970s to the bureaucratic analysis of decision making,especially during times of crisis. His book Remaking Foreign Policy:The Organizational Connection,co-written with Peter L. Szanton,was published in 1976 and influenced the foreign policy of the Carter administration. Since the 1970s,Allison has also been a leading analyst of U.S. national security and defense policy,with a special interest in nuclear weapons and terrorism.
The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat,with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Before and during the Cold War,it conducted 1,054 nuclear tests,and tested many long-range nuclear weapons delivery systems.
David E. Sanger is an American journalist who is the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times,writing since 1982,covering foreign policy,globalization,nuclear proliferation,and the presidency.
The Center for the National Interest is a Washington,D.C.-based public policy think tank. It was established by former U.S. President Richard Nixon on January 20,1994,as the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom.
French–Iraq relations are the relations between France and Iraq. France played a major role in Iraqi secession from the Ottoman Empire and eventual freedom from British colonial status. The Franco-Iraqi relationship is often defined by conflict and peace,with France supporting Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War,supporting intervention in Iraq in Operation Desert Storm,and opposing the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq. As of 2004,Iraq maintains an embassy in Paris and France maintains an embassy in Baghdad and a consulate general in Erbil.
This timeline of nuclear weapons development is a chronological catalog of the evolution of nuclear weapons rooting from the development of the science surrounding nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. In addition to the scientific advancements,this timeline also includes several political events relating to the development of nuclear weapons. The availability of intelligence on recent advancements in nuclear weapons of several major countries is limited because of the classification of technical knowledge of nuclear weapons development.
Brian H. Hook is an American diplomat,lawyer and government official. In 2021,he joined Cerberus Capital Management as vice chairman for global investments. He is an adjunct professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.
Benjamin J. Rhodes is an American writer,political commentator and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting under President Barack Obama. With Jake Sullivan,he is the co-chair of National Security Action,a political NGO. He contributes to NBC News and MSNBC regularly as a political commentator. He is also a Crooked Media contributor,and co-host of the foreign policy podcast Pod Save the World.
Jeffrey Lewis is an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and geopolitics,currently a professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey,and director of the CNS East Asia Nonproliferation Program. He has written two books on China's nuclear weapons,and numerous journal and magazine articles,blog posts,and podcasts on nonproliferation and related topics.
In the year 2017,North Korea was involved in the 2017 North Korea crisis,along with other events. The country conducted a nuclear test in September,and several missile tests throughout the year. One of these was the country's first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM),Hwasong-14. Two missiles were launched over Hokkaido in the Japanese archipelago,in August and in September 2017.
Matthew Kroenig is an American political scientist and national security strategist currently serving as vice president of the Atlantic Council and professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Kroenig is known for his research on international security and nuclear weapons.
Christine Ahn is a Korean-American peace activist who serves as the Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ,an organization of women advocating for an end to the Korean War. In 2015,she led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea to South Korea. She is also the 2020 winner of the US Peace Prize for her work for peace on the Korean peninsula and her advocacy for women's leadership in peace-building efforts.
