Nuclear weapons and deterrence

The Future of the Undersea Deterrent: A Global Survey (ANU NSC)

30 April 2020 Editor Research and commentary, Strategy, defence and security

Amid rapid geopolitical change at the start of the 2020s, nuclear weapons manifest grim continuity with the previous century. Especially persistent is a capability that has existed since the 1960s: the deployment of nuclear weapons on submarines. The ungainly acronym SSBN represents nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines: the most destructive armaments carried on a supposedly undetectable, and thus invulnerable, platform. This complex maritime-nuclear dynamic brings deterrence but also great risk. Yet the intersection of undersea nuclear forces,

Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence (Chatham House)

30 April 2020 Editor Research and commentary

ChathamHouse Nuclear deterrence theory, with its roots in the Cold War era, may not account for all eventualities in security and defence in the 21st century, given the larger number of nuclear actors in a less binary geopolitical context. It is clear that a number of present factors challenge the overall credibility of ‘classical’ nuclear deterrence, meaning that in-depth analysis is now needed. Read the article online or download the full report (pdf, 1MB) (external links