Brinkmanship and Deterrence: Key Concepts and Historical Context

Brinkmanship and Deterrence

Key Terms

  • Brinkmanship: Taking a situation to the edge, threatening action without necessarily intending to follow through. This involves creating a sense of danger to influence an opponent.
  • Deterrence: Preventing or dissuading someone from taking a particular action, often through the threat of retaliation or negative consequences.

The Best Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons

  • 1945: The United States develops the first atomic bomb.
  • 1949: The USSR develops its own atomic bomb, ending the US nuclear monopoly.
  • 1952: The US develops the hydrogen bomb, a more powerful weapon than the atomic bomb.
  • 1953: The USSR develops its own hydrogen bomb.
  • ICBMs: Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, capable of delivering nuclear weapons over long distances.
  • Tsar Bomba: A particularly powerful hydrogen bomb tested by the Soviet Union.

The Space Race: A New Dimension of Deterrence

  • 1957: Sputnik: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, demonstrating the ability to deliver weapons remotely. This event heightened fears and intensified the space race.
  • Fight for Space: The competition to dominate space was driven by the strategic implications of controlling this new frontier. The phrase “Cannot be under a Red moon” reflects the fear of Soviet dominance in space.

MAD: Mutual Assured Destruction

  • Concept: A doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. This relies on the idea that neither side would initiate a nuclear attack because it would guarantee their own destruction.
  • Estimated Number of Warheads (2006):
    • USA: 5,535 (peak 1965: 31,642)
    • Russia: 8,800 (peak 1986: 40,723)
    • France: 350
    • Great Britain: 200
    • China: 400
    • Pakistan: 60
    • India: 140
    • North Korea: 10
    • Israel: 200

Defenses

  • NORAD: North American Aerospace Defense Command, responsible for aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America.
  • DEW Line: Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern areas of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland, designed to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War.

Growing Feelings of Hysteria

  • The Cold War climate fostered a sense of fear and anxiety in both Europe and America.
  • Soviet rhetoric, such as Khrushchev's statement