First Strike

Attack on an enemy's nuclear arsenal that prevents the victim from retaliating effectively against the attacker.

Throughout most of the Cold War, the two superpowers—the United States and Soviet Union—practiced a nuclear strategy known as mutually assured destruction (MAD). This strategy involved the threat of massive retaliation against a nuclear attack. Both nations maintained huge arsenals of nuclear weapons so that either could survive a nuclear attack by the other and still launch a devastating counter-strike. This policy maintained a nervous balance of nuclear power, with neither side willing to risk the consequences of starting a nuclear conflict.

First-strike theory argues that it is possible to launch a disabling attack against an opponent, even one that possesses a large nuclear arsenal. According to the theory, an effective first strike would target an opponent's nuclear-launch facilities and the supply sites that support them. A successful first strike would cripple enemy missiles that are ready to launch and prevent the opponent from readying others for a counterstrike. However, despite several periods of heightened superpower tension during the Cold War, neither side was prepared to take the risk of launching a first strike. The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 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 raised concerns among those who felt that MAD was an effective means of preventing nuclear conflict. The system, dubbed “Star Wars,” threatened to enable the United States to knock out Soviet missiles en route to their targets. This would give the United States a serious first-strike capability because it would not need to worry about Soviet retaliation. The system, however, has been plagued by technical difficulties that have prevented its deployment. As of 2005, the Star Wars system was still having difficulty locating, tracking, and destroying practice targets much cruder than their real-world counterparts.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the intense nuclear rivalry of the Cold War. Many of the new nations established in former Soviet republics agreed to scrap their nuclear weapons in return for cash payments from the United States and NATO. Russia, which retained most of the former Soviet nuclear capability, also destroyed many of its aging warheads. Current Russian nuclear capability is so far reduced from its heights under the former Soviet Union that the United States likely could launch a successful first strike. However, the fact that Russia does not pose a serious threat greatly reduces the need for or value of a U.S. first-strike policy.