Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Would U.S. Leaders Push the Button? Wargames and the Sources of Nuclear Restraint

| Fall 2018

Summary

Why haven’t nuclear weapons been used since 1945? During the Cold War, senior U.S. officials participated in many wargames that included scenarios of possible nuclear war. The declassified records of these exercises reveal that participants in the simulations decided not to “launch” nuclear attacks partly because they wanted to avoid provoking nuclear retaliation, but also because they worried that their reputations would suffer or thought that conventional weapons would be more effective. 

Want to Read More?

The full text of this publication is available via the original publication source.
Read Full Article
For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
For Academic Citation:

Reid B.C. Pauly, "Would U.S. Leaders Push the Button? Wargames and the Sources of Nuclear Restraint," International Security, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Fall 2018), pp. 151–192, doi:10.1162/ISEC_a_00333.

The Author

Recommended
In the Spotlight
RSS
We need to unite America’s “grassroots” with its “grasstops” — to awaken a broad climate change voting majority that includes all elements of society, write Ernest Moniz and John Kerry. There is no Planet B to go to after this.
More from Ernest Moniz
Matthew Meselson has received the $50,000 Future of Life Award for his major role in the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, an international ban that has prevented one of the most inhumane forms of warfare known to humanity.
VIDEO: Meselson's description of the origins of the ban on biological weapons.
Meghan O’Sullivan writes that the Trump administration’s plan not to renew waivers to importers of Iranian crude oil, because Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase production, is a win-win situation when transactional diplomacy could actually work.
More from Meghan O'Sullivan
Most Viewed

Tags