Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Nuclear War with Small States

Open to the Public

Thomas M. Nichols will present a Managing the Atom Seminar entitled "Nuclear War with Small States" on Tuesday February 1, 2011 beginning at 9:30am in the Belfer Center library.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
A 21 kiloton underwater nuclear weapons effects test, known as Operation CROSSROADS (Event Baker), conducted at Bikini Atoll (1946).

About

Thomas M. Nichols will present a Managing the Atom Seminar entitled "Nuclear War with Small States" on Tuesday February 1, 2011 beginning at 9:30am in the Belfer Center library.

During the Cold War, U.S. nuclear strategy was focused on inflicting unacceptable, even total, destruction on the Soviet Union during a global war for national survival. But with the Cold War over, and new nuclear states such as North Korea emerging, what are the practical—and moral--implications of a nuclear exchange with a small nation surrounded by innocent third parties? Do nuclear weapons continue to have any use beyond the protection of the U.S. and its allies from existential destruction?