1. The Cold War as Total (Virtual)
War: Prospect of Nuclear War
The Post-World War Two Condition
for Almost Fifty Years
2. The Cold War as Total (Virtual) War:
Prospect of Nuclear War
โข Main Nuclear Weapon (NW) effects
โ Blast (supersonic shock wave)
Overpressure and extremely high-speed winds
โ Thermal (extremely high temperatures)
Non-ionizing radiation (Infrared and Visible)
โ Prompt ionizing radiation (from the bombโs nuclear
reactions)
โ Delayed radiation (fallout from the radioactive fission
fragments)
โข Other special effects
โ EMP, ionospheric changes, โฆ
3. Nuclear Strategies of the United States
and the Soviet Union
โข Mutual Assured Destruction:
โ Deter an attack by threatening to destroy the
state, regime, civil society, and population of
the adversary
โ Small but invulnerable nuclear armed forces are
required capable of surviving an adversaryโs
first-strike nuclear attack and retaliating against
civilian targets.
4. US/USSR: Each Pursues a
Counterforce Strategy
โข Objective: Eliminate the nuclear forces of
the adversaries
โข Why? 1) Attempt to limit damage of an
adversaryโs nuclear forces by destroying
them; Clausewitz goes nuclear
โ 2) Reinforce deterrence
โ 3) Protect allies by demonstrating a will to
use or threaten nuclear weapons and war
5. Balance of Nuclear US/SU
Nuclear Forces: 1990
โข United States
โ 1903 launchers (air,
sea, ground)
โ 12,477 strategic
warheads
โข Soviet Union
โ 2,500 launchers (air
and ground)
โ 10,271 strategic
warheads
6. Failure of Arms Control to Limit
Nuclear Forces
โข SALT I: Failure to limit the number of
launchers
โข START: Failure to limit warheads and
Multiple Independently Targeting Vehicles
(MIRVs)
7. European Theatre Nuclearized
โข US and NATO Forces deploy thousands of
so-called tactical nuclear weapons which
are in the kiloton range (Hiroshima bomb)
โข The Soviet Union and satellites states in
Europe equally position short and long-
range nuclear missiles and nuclear weapons
in Europe
8. The Cold War Extends to the
Globe
โข The United States signs over 40 collective security
treaties to balance Soviet alliances around the
world
โข The United States and the Soviet Union become
the worldโs largest suppliers of arms to states
around the globe
โ The US sustains the nuclear forces of Britain
โ France and Israel, allies of the US, develop their own
nuclear forces with some unofficial assistance from the
United States
9. Then Why Did the Cold War End
without a World Nuclear War?
โข Political crisis within the Soviet alliance system
and within the domestic order of the Soviet Union
โ External crisis: Nationalism of Soviet satellites no
longer can be contained
โ Internal crisis;
โข Russian nationalism rejects Soviet imperial system as too
costly
โข Soviet federal system collapses into independent national states
10. Crisis of National Conflicts
Deepened by Economic Crisis
โข The economic and technological growth of the
Western liberal states vastly exceeds the
increasingly slow economic and technological
development of the Soviet Union and Communist
centralized economies
โข Western capitalist markets foster growth and
technological progress more effectively and
efficiently, with less corruption, than centralized
economic systems
11. The Limits of Total War and
Military Force
โข The formidable Soviet army disintegrated
โข Nationalism triumphs over military force which is unable to
contain this political force
โข The economic burden of the vast Soviet military system and
the inefficiencies of a centralized economic system contribute
to the defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War
โข In December, 1991, the Soviet Union is dissolved as a state
and implodes into 15 independent nation-states
โข The former satellites of the Soviet Union in the Warsaw pact
also regain their national independence
โข The West and East Germany are integrated into the Federal
Republic of Germany
12. Theoretical and Policy
Implications of the Cold War
โข Empires -- that is -- rule of populations by foreign
military forces have all failed
โข The tendency toward total or pure war continues
โ Nuclear proliferation increases: North Korea, Iran
joining India, Pakistan, and Israel
โ Terrorism has also emerged as a global challenge
13. Part I: Classes 7-11 Will Outline
Alternative Theories to Explain Security
โข Realism and Neo-Realism
โข Classical (market) Liberalism
โข Institutional Liberalism
โข Marxism and class conflicts arising from
the unequal distribution of wealth and
power as a consequence of global markets.