Past Present Future

Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 2

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Feb 18, 2026
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INSIGHT

MAD Is A Rationality Construct

  • Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) relies on sanitised 'game' rationality that makes extreme retaliation credible.
  • Amadae notes the logic is internally coherent but not unavoidable or necessarily sane.
INSIGHT

Schelling's Ceiling On Violence

  • Thomas Schelling saw assured destruction as a stabilising equilibrium if both sides had credible second-strike forces.
  • Amadae highlights Schelling's faith that limited, survivable forces could prevent war.
INSIGHT

Warfighting Doctrine Undermined Taboo

  • A competing school (Herman Kahn/NUTS) argued for preparing to fight and 'win' nuclear war, eroding taboo.
  • Amadae traces how warfighting doctrine drove continued buildup and normalisation.
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