The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War (Suny Series in Radical Social and)

For those who need to understand the theory and practices of NC3 [Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications] for disarmament activism, for defense policy in Global / National Security studies, or for public policy advisement; this is the second textbook that should be read by students of the discipline. Dr. Blair was and is a holistic student and practitioner of nuclear weapon issues since his days standing watch as a LGM-30 launch officer, through his doctoral candidacy, and his continuing work as a Subject Matter Expert in the perils of nuclear weapons and positive/negative control of them.This text details the operational differences in deterrence and NC3 between the USSR/Russia and the United States, along with the weak nodes with which an opponent could strike and disable parts or the near totality of the NC3 system in a first strike designed not to kill hundreds of millions as the popular vision of nuclear war is; but how small scale sabotage, kinetic weapon attacks, and a large nuclear weapon burst in the exo-atmosphere over the CONUS could disable the U.S. air based alerting and initiating response system.The book is frightening in its' implications and the retention of a very flawed system of nuclear weapon control and use that is increasingly ignored by American policy makers and politicians, the USAF, and the defense industry.

Bruce Blair made an important and neglected contribution at a time when nuclear powers were being treated as rational actors and wars were being treated as impossible as long as each state invested in sufficient deterrence. Blair used bureaucratic politics and organizational theories to show that nuclear leaders and control authorities are not perfectly rational and even if they were they could find self-interests for disobeying deterrence. Blair notes incidents where militaries simply disobeyed policy in their own interests, potentially persuading foreign powers that they were being double-crossed. Even if rational, organizaitons can be lazy or mistaken, allowing an accident or over-reacting to an accident - his data on how many nuclear accidents actually have occurred, even those that we know of, is shocking, as well as on how many nuclear tests (hundreds, if not thousands) have been conducted on this planet, some of which made other states worry about pre-emptive war.

Must read. Outstanding documentation of how military power and political brinksmanship can bring two countries to within seconds of global thermonuclear war. Very well documented and written.