INR 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Strategic Defense Initiative, Conventional Weapons, Mutual Assured Destruction

• School: FIU
• Department: International Relations
• Course: INR 2001
• Professor: John Dotson

Document Summary

The tendency of states to view the defensive arming of adversaries as threatening, causing them to arm in response, so that all states" security declines. A condition of mutual deterrence in which both sides possess the ability to survive a first strike with weapons of mass destruction and launch a devastating retaliatory attack. Counterforce strategy; if you think you can survive, you attack. The theory that peace and stability are most likely to be maintained when military power is distributed to prevent a single superpower hegemon or bloc from controlling the world. The expected freeze that would occur in the earth"s climate from the fallout of smoke and dust in the event nuclear weapons were used, blocking out sunlight and destroying the plant and animal life that survived the original blast. Coalition of two or more states that combine their military capabilities and promise to coordinate their policies to increase mutual security.