NATO's Deterrence Policy - Time for Change?

The Cold War is commonly known as the prime time of nuclear deterrence. It used to be a high-profile and lucrative subject for the political scientists. Nuclear deterrence symbolised the ultimate dream of a strategist: it was about a tete-a-tete battle between two military superpowers for the domination of the world, with the survival of humanity itself at stake. Emergence of the nuclear weapon has added a new dimension to international politics and exponentially increased the cost of any possible new war among the great powers. The limits of nuclear deterrence were tested only once, when N. Khrushchev and the Kennedy brothers engaged in the “Chicken” game over the Cuban missiles, bringing the world to the brink of extinction as close as it ever was. This led to the mutual realisation of nuclear parity and the MAD doctrine, which in turn enabled the hightime of arms control with the signing of NPT (1968), ABM (1972) and SALT I (1972) treaties. During the 1980s, the Pershing missile crisis and Reagan’s Star Wars triggered a short-lived relapse into a new arms race, which ended with the signing of START I (1991) and the collapse of the Soviet Union.