Nuclear War and the Environment

Nuclear Weapons and the Second World War

Since the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have captured the attention of social scientists and the public alike. Some argue that the world benefits from nuclear weapons, claiming that they prevent war. Skeptics do not share this view and worry that nuclear weapons will only intensify conflict. Unfortunately, most theories about the benefits of nuclear weapons await judge...

Environmental consequences of nuclear war

groups made valuable contributions to elaborating the consequences of nuclear warfare.1 Paul Crutzen and John Birks proposed that massive fires and smoke emissions in the lower atmosphere after a global nuclear exchange would create severe short-term environmental aftereffects. Extending their work, two of us (Toon and Turco) and colleagues discovered “nuclear winter,” which posited that worldw...

Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War

Clinical Sociology and Preventing Nuclear War

This paper outlines major kinds of social science research, especially sociological, that have relevance for nuclear war prevention and that would be relevant to a variety of clients. Research that has been done as well as work that could be done to help prevent nuclear war are noted. The research topics are related to policy suggestions about lessening the risks of nuclear war. The emphasis is...

Nuclear Brinkmanship, Limited War, and Military Power*

An open question in nuclear deterrence theory is whether and how the balance of military power affects the dynamics of escalation. The balance of military strength plays virtually no role in standard accounts of brinkmanship. But this largely by assumption and seems incompatible with an apparent trade-off between power and risk that decision makers faced in some actual crises. This paper incorp...