Has anyone written about how modern nukes are a weapon of the weak (state)? The first and only use was an exceptional strong vs weak use. Now the biggest risk is weak and fragile states throwing a last big punch on the way down.
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I was mildly concerned during the Kargil War, but I don’t think Pakistan was fragile enough at the time to contemplate use. It was just border adventurism. Russia today feels a lot more desperate.
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This is why Iran and North Korea are particularly worrisome since they also have weak states and strong historical adversaries nearby. Weak in the sense of low ability to govern or provide any services beyond coercive policing and extraction focused ones.
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is this not the justification "weak" states use for armament? "we might not be able to catch up but once we get at least one we're in the MAD network with the big boys!"
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Go (board game) has special appeal to me since groups can be unkillable (both "live" and "alive in seki") upon attaining sufficient structure (hence minimum viable size), somewhat similar to a fortress in chess endgames.
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I took a very good course on Nuclear Politics by Alex Debs. I'm sure this book will give a good summary and cite the relevant literature (Schelling, etc)
Final assignment was a debate for/against nuclear proliferation. (I was on "for")
politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/n
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