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Nuclear Weapons Theory

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The creation and stockpiling of nuclear weapons has raised many issues over the years. Some include the ethics of making them or when it is moral enough to use them. Another issue is what safeguards a country has that another country will not use these types of weapons on it. This problem can be solved by the idea of nuclear deterrence. Nuclear deterrence is the idea that an enemy is dissuaded to use nuclear weapons on another country because of some action that will happen. There are many different theories of nuclear deterrence. However, this paper will focus on the three theories known as MAD, NUT, and existentialist by explaining them and then evaluating these theories. The first theory of nuclear deterrence that will be discussed is called MAD or mutually assured destruction. This theory states that a country is deterred from using nuclear weapons on an enemy because the enemy will retaliate and use their nuclear weapons on the country with an equal or greater magnitude of force because of this it is in the countries best interest to not start a nuclear war. In game theory this is known as a nash equilibrium because both countries have nothing to lose or gain by attacking or disarming their nukes. In other words, it is not smart for country A to attack because they will face retaliation, or disarm their nuked because then country B will be able to attack with no repercussions. Now, in theory this is a sound idea of deterrence because it is easy enough to follow the idea

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