MAD doctrine from "summary" of The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg
The MAD doctrine was a policy of mutually assured destruction which relied on the threat of nuclear retaliation to deter a nuclear attack. It was based on the idea that if two countries were each able to inflict unacceptable levels of damage on the other, neither would initiate an attack.- The MAD doctrine, commonly known as mutually assured destruction, is a strategy used by countries in a variety of ways to protect themselves from nuclear attack.
- It works by each country’s military having access to destructive amounts of weapons to make sure the other side understands it could mean disastrous results for both parties should they choose to compete against one another.
- This concept states that if one side of the conflict has powered up enough weapons to destroy their enemy, the sheer amount of firepower available might be enough to deter them from attacking in the first place.
- Overall, the mutual assured destruction doctrine strives to maintain stability in international relations while upholding a strong sense of balance of power among all countries involved.
- As long as both parties continue to possess the capacity to obliterate one another, no single-sided aggression can occur which would then ultimately bring about whole-world destruction.
- This idea was popularized throughout the Cold War and continues to live on today despite changes in its implementation and practice.
