Maximum Deterrence Essay

August, 1945, the world saw a terrible tragedy. The tragedy was happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then Japan surrender to Allied Powers and the war finished. Right after World War II, the world divided into two, one is Western Bloc, represented by NATO and the other is Eastern Bloc, represented by WTO. And the age well known as ‘Cold War’ lasted to early1990’s. During the cold war, each of them tried to maintain the read in every part, especially military. They worried about the World War III, that’s why they tried to maintain the lead in military. And they manufactured nuclear weapons by ‘Nuclear Deterrence Theory’.

Country

Operational

In storage

Retired

Total

U.S

2,150

2.500

3,000

7,650

Russia

1,720

2,700

4,000

8,420

UK

160

65

225

Definition

First one is ‘Maximum Deterrence’. This variation means ‘Deter other country by overwhelming number of nuclear weapons’, And Maximum Deterrence was United State’s main deterrence policy in early Cold War From 1949 to late 1950s, United States have overwhelming number of nuclear weapons than Soviet Union. So U.S president Eisenhower stresses their amount of nuclear weapons. But, shortly this variation lost its power by Soviet Union increase their number of nuclear weapons. So United States had to change their policy in to Mutual Deterrence. This variation is representable one, because this one is a main policy during the rest of Cold War. This variation as known as ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’. This variation appeared with incensement of Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons. This variation’s definition is ‘Military theory of nuclear deterrence holding that neither side will attack the other if both sides are guaranteed to be totally destroyed in the conflict’. Hungarian mathmatition ‘John Von Neumann’ claimed this theory first, President J.F.Kennedy and Lyndon .B Johnson pushed ahead. Last variation is ‘Minimum Deterrence’. This one is pretty different in kind with other two variations. This theory is kind of blipping. This theory claim ‘if we can make opponent country believe a few number of nuclear weapons can give a apocalyptic damage ,it is enough to

But in 21th century, China grew vertically, and the North Korea started to their nuclear test. Also, after President George W. Bush declared ‘War on Terror’, the Middle East countries, especially Iran became a magazine. So even though the whole world wants denuclearization but United States still needs nuclear weapons. North Korea is one of most dangerous country in the world. If South Korea have a nuclear weapon, it would be easy to deter North Korea. Unfortunately, South Korea has no nuclear weapons and this situation make United States application variation called ‘Nuclear Umbrella’. It is kind of Deterrence Theory, it is kind of an international treaty that country which have nuclear weapons protect country which don’t have or have a little number of nuclear weapons. United sates promised they will provied to their allience ‘Extended Deterrence’. It mean United States deter oppenent country by include Nuclear Umbrella, Misaill Defense and conventional weapons. Extended Deterrence provided to west Europe countries during Cold War, but these days offer to not only west Europe but also East Asia countries like South Korea or Japan.