first strike

first strike, attack on an enemy’s nuclear arsenal that effectively prevents retaliation against the attacker. A successful first strike would cripple enemy missiles that are ready to launch and would prevent the opponent from readying others for a counterstrike by targeting the enemy’s nuclear stockpiles and launch facilities.

Throughout most of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union practiced a nuclear strategy known as mutually assured destruction (MAD). That strategy involved the threat of massive retaliation against a nuclear attack, as both nations maintained arsenals of nuclear weapons large enough that either could survive a nuclear attack and still launch a devastating counterstrike. The policy maintained a nervous balance of nuclear power, with neither side willing to risk the consequences of starting a nuclear conflict. Although a first strike could theoretically launch a disabling attack against an opponent with a large nuclear arsenal, neither side was prepared to take that risk. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations formally renounced a first-strike policy, but the Soviet Union refused to go that far.

During the 1980s the decision of U.S. President Ronald Reagan to develop a space-based missile defense system, known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), raised concerns among those who felt that MAD was an effective means of preventing nuclear conflict. The system, dubbed “Star Wars,” would have enabled the United States to knock out Soviet missiles en route to their targets. That would have given the United States a serious first-strike capability because it would have not needed to worry about Soviet retaliation. The system, however, was plagued by technical problems and had difficulty locating, tracking, and destroying practice targets. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the intense nuclear rivalry of the Cold War, though many nations still reserve the option to initiate a nuclear first strike. As of 2013 China and India are the only two nations who have pledged to use nuclear weapons only in retaliation to a nuclear attack.