"Mutually assured destruction" and "Mutual annihilation" redirect here. For the episode of The Americans, see Mutually Assured Destruction (The Americans). For particle–antiparticle annihilation, see Annihilation.
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Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would result in the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.[1] It is based on the theory of rational deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which, once armed, neither side has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.
The result is nuclear peace, in which the presence of nuclear weapons decreases the risk of crisis escalation, since parties will seek to avoid situations that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. Proponents of nuclear peace theory therefore believe that controlled nuclear proliferation may be beneficial for global stability. Critics argue that nuclear proliferation increases the chance of nuclear war through either deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons, as well as the likelihood of nuclear material falling into the hands of violent non-state actors.
The term "mutual assured destruction", commonly abbreviated "MAD", was coined by Donald Brennan, a strategist working in Herman Kahn's Hudson Institute in 1962.[2] Brennan conceived the acronym cynically, spelling out the English word "mad" to argue that holding weapons capable of destroying society was irrational.[3]
^Mutual Assured Destruction Archived 2018-01-03 at the Wayback Machine; Col. Alan J. Parrington, USAF, Mutually Assured Destruction Revisited, Strategic Doctrine in Question Archived 2015-06-20 at the Wayback Machine, Airpower Journal, Winter 1997.
^Daniel., Deudney (1983). Whole earth security : a geopolitics of peace. Washington: Worldwatch Institute. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-916468-54-5. OCLC 9833320.
Mutualassureddestruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons...
and the tension created between these two classes will cease. Mutualassureddestruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy based on rational deterrence...
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material, potentially for the purpose of radiological warfare, mutualassureddestruction or as doomsday devices. There is no firm evidence that such a...
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nuclear weapons and is related to but distinct from the concept of mutualassureddestruction, according to which a full-scale nuclear attack on a power with...
post-Soviet Russian Federation. An example of fail-deadly and mutualassureddestruction deterrence, it can automatically initiate the launch of the Russian...
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story: specifically, a parable about arms races in general, mutuallyassureddestruction and nuclear weapons in particular. The Butter Battle Book was...
could contemplate mutualassureddestruction in a nuclear war. The nuclear deterrence of both sides threatened massive destruction on each other. Ultimately...
deterrent in the event of a first strike and a key element of the mutualassureddestruction policy of nuclear deterrence. The deployment of ballistic missile...
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nuclear warfare. At the height of the Cold War, the doctrine of mutuallyassureddestruction (MAD), which determined that an all-out nuclear confrontation...
representation" led to a popular belief that the doctrine of mutualassureddestruction (MAD) was in Canada's best interest. MAD was the Cold War doctrine...
1093/jogss/ogz016. MutualAssuredDestruction Archived 3 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine; Col. Alan J. Parrington, USAF, MutuallyAssuredDestruction Revisited...
entailed frightful implications of nuclear warfare, the Cold War, mutualassureddestruction, nuclear proliferation, the risk of nuclear disaster (potentially...
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perception of nuclear weapons. It features in the security concept of mutuallyassureddestruction (MAD) and is a common scenario in survivalism. Nuclear holocaust...
Response: The last phase or stage more or less corresponded to the mutualassureddestruction scenario. The total nuclear attack on the communist world likely...