Editing Mutual assured destruction (section)

{{short description|Doctrine of military strategy}}
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{{War}}
{{Nuclear weapons}}

'''Mutual assured destruction''' ('''MAD''') is a [[doctrine]] of [[military strategy]] and [[national security|national security policy]] which posits that a full-scale use of [[nuclear weapon]]s by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with [[Second strike|second-strike capabilities]] would result in the [[nuclear holocaust|complete annihilation]] of both the attacker and the defender.<ref>[http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm Mutual Assured Destruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103001128/http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm |date=2018-01-03 }}; Col. Alan J. Parrington, USAF, [http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/win97/parrin.html Mutually Assured Destruction Revisited, Strategic Doctrine in Question] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620055606/http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/win97/parrin.html |date=2015-06-20 }}, Airpower Journal, Winter 1997.</ref> It is based on the theory of [[Deterrence theory|rational deterrence]], which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of [[Nash equilibrium]] in which, once armed, neither side has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.

The result may be a '''nuclear peace''', in which the presence of [[nuclear weapons]] decreases the risk of crisis escalation, since parties will seek to avoid situations that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. Proponents of nuclear peace theory therefore believe that controlled [[nuclear proliferation]] may be beneficial for global stability. Critics argue that nuclear proliferation increases the chance of [[nuclear war]] through either deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons, as well as the likelihood of [[nuclear material]] falling into the hands of [[violent non-state actor]]s.

The term "mutual assured destruction", commonly abbreviated "MAD", was coined by Donald Brennan, a strategist working in [[Herman Kahn]]'s [[Hudson Institute]] in 1962.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Whole earth security : a geopolitics of peace|last=Daniel.|first=Deudney|date=1983|publisher=Worldwatch Institute|isbn=978-0-916468-54-5|location=Washington|pages=80|oclc=9833320}}</ref> Brennan conceived the acronym cynically, spelling out the English word "[[wikt:mad#English|mad]]" to argue that holding weapons capable of destroying society was irrational.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Jervis|first=Robert|date=2002|title=Mutual Assured Destruction|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3183553|journal=Foreign Policy|issue=133|pages=40–42|doi=10.2307/3183553|jstor=3183553|issn=0015-7228|url-access=subscription}}</ref>