Abstract

This section examines the assumptions underlying mutualassured destruction (MAD) considered as both a state of the world and a nuclear security posture, the theoretical defence of MAD as a strategic doctrine, strategic developments in the 1970s, and arguments critics made to challenge MAD. A second section introduces the rise of the nuclear warfighting school that opposes the nuclear revolution and MAD, and supports the need to prepare to fight and win a nuclear war as fundamental to maintaining the credibility of nuclear deterrence.