tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post3664488430771948447..comments2024-03-26T04:21:43.535-05:00Comments on Free Association: What Israel Really Fears about IranSheldon Richmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15672237234580563637noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-32883126148850610452012-01-23T03:54:18.357-06:002012-01-23T03:54:18.357-06:00what about tom schelling's point that nuclear ...what about tom schelling's point that nuclear weapons makes war unthinkable?<br /><br />Traditionally, war was an alternative to diplomacy, and military strategy the science of victory.<br /><br />In a world of nuclear weapons, military power is not so much exercised as threatened. <br /><br />It is bargaining power, and the exploitation of this power, for good or evil, to preserve peace or to threaten war, is diplomacy — the diplomacy of violence. <br /><br />Schelling tried to do terrible things like work out how not to blunder into wars and how to deter wars rather than have to actually fight them.<br /><br />As Tom Schelling noted 50 years ago, baring universal brain surgery to eliminate all knowledge of nuclear weapons and how to make them, the challenge is arms control, not disarmament and how to have stable deterrence so there is no nuclear war.<br /><br />Schelling’s unique contribution involved viewing strategic situations as bargaining processes.<br /><br />Focusing on the stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union, Schelling observed that the two superpowers had both shared and opposing interests. <br /><br />Their shared interests involved avoiding a nuclear war, while their opposing interests concerned dominating the other. Conflict and cooperation became inseparable.<br /><br />Iran and Israel are moving down that path if both have nuclear weapons.<br /><br />people with nuclear weapons do not do crazy things when the other side has them too.Jim Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02233668500637892711noreply@blogger.com