Nuclear Weapons During The Cold War Essay

Mutually assured destruction prevented an outbreak of nuclear warfare during the Cold War. The stance against the employment of nuclear weapons arose from shifting norms in international society, as states were prompted to dedicate themselves to preventative war. Additionally, it was challenged whether the enormously devastating impact of nuclear weapons was ethically sound and whether it could be effectively used militarily. The notion that there was no winner to a nuclear war, however, predominately restricted states from resorting to nuclear warfare. The was no nuclear conflict in the Cold War because of mutually assured destruction.

Nuclear arms were ironically instrumental to the stability of international society during the Cold War. …show more content…
With the balance of terror preventing this avenue, nuclear weapons became strategically ineffective – there was no alternative use for them. In addition, nuclear deployment in hot wars where America had limited reason to fear nuclear retaliation, could not amount to the state’s benefit. Nuclear warfare did not suitably translate to idealogical / colonial and territorial conflicts. Nuclear deployment in Chile would annihilate the country instead of eradicating communism, similarly, introducing nuclear warfare to the Korean War would not allow South Korea to claim their former borders; that territory would be rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear radiation deployed on the ground. There were limited causes nuclear weapons could realistically be applied to during the Cold War. Nuclear weapon’s inflexible purpose of bringing mass destruction meant it could only reasonably be applied to dire circumstances.
Bernard Brodie ‘it can have no other useful purpose’ the only extreme case of nuclear warfare was actively prevented by the efforts of states to avert mutual destruction.

Nuclear weapons used solely for destruction. No territorial