MAD, not Marx: Khrushchev and the nuclear revolution

Craig, Campbell ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4872-2403 and Radchenko, Sergey ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5100-1447 2018. MAD, not Marx: Khrushchev and the nuclear revolution. Journal of Strategic Studies 41 (1-2) , pp. 208-233. 10.1080/01402390.2017.1330683

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Abstract

The revival of nuclear strategy in US policy and scholarship has been strengthened by arguments that the ‘nuclear revolution’ – the assumption that thermonuclear bombs and missiles had made major war too dangerous to wage – does not affect international behaviour as much as nuclear revolution advocates claim. This article shows that the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev indeed regarded nuclear war as too dangerous to wage, a decision which manifested itself not so much in foreign policy or military doctrine but in his determination to avoid war when the possibility arose. We argue that Khrushchev’s experience provides us with a more useful way to characterise the nuclear revolution and suggest some implications of this argument for contemporary debates about nuclear weaponry.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR) Cardiff Law & Politics
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	0140-2390
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 October 2017
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2023 23:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/105003

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