Nuclear Weapons and 50 Years of International Political History: Risks, Dangers, Threats, Crises, Proposals, and Consideration of Use

This paper describes unknown or little-understood interactions of U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons delivery systems between 1945 and 1995, a time of heightened tensions. Commissioned in 1995 by Sweden’s Ministry of Defence Research Establishment (FOA), the paper was prepared for a two-day conference in Sweden on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. use of nuclear weapons on Japan in August 1945. During this tumultuous 50-year period, nuclear threats, explicit or implicit, were commonplace. The paper asserts that the U.S. and Soviet leadership were provocative and cavalier regarding their respective deployed nuclear weapons. Far from accidental, these risky behaviors were deliberate, purposeful policies established by political and military leaders in both countries. The author argues that it was a matter of chance and good fortune, rather than extreme care and caution, that no use of nuclear weapons took place between 1945 and 1995.