Strategy in the Nuclear Age: The Continuing Relevance of the Absolute Weapon in Future War

The specter of nuclear war must be the dominant factor in formulating strategy in the 21st century. General nuclear war remains as unwinnable today as it was during the Cold War, and the conditions that made such a war possible, namely the existence of nuclear weapons in globally destructive quantities, remains extant. It follows then that, as during the Cold War, deterrence must be foremost in the mind of the statesman, and strategists. At present, it is not. This paper aims to reinvigorate an understanding of how nuclear weapons continue to influence strategy.