nuclear arms race
Atomic weapons competition
A nuclear arms race is competition between nations to accumulate nuclear weapons, each side building more or more powerful arsenals in response to the other.
The term most often refers to the Cold War rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union, when both stockpiled thousands of warheads.
The logic of arms races—that security requires matching or exceeding an adversary's capabilities—can spiral into mutual vulnerability rather than safety.
- NATOWestern defense organization
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- Cuban Missile Crisis1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- red buttonUrgent action trigger
- HiroshimaFirst nuclear-struck city
Warsaw Pact · North Korea · Nagasaki · Soviet Union · United States · mutual assured destruction · Iran · brinkmanship · atomic bomb · deterrence · China · Manhattan Project · United Nations Security Council · proxy wars · Iron Curtain · Berlin Wall · warheads · Sputnik
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis, Eastern Bloc
- Cold War EraSoviet Union, Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile Crisis, Iron Curtain, Warsaw Pact
- Cold War OriginsIron Curtain, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift
- diplomacyembassy, ambassador, ambassadors, treaty, treaties
- Soviet EraUSSR, Soviet Union, Soviet rule, CCCP, Eastern Bloc
- postwar eraMarshall Plan, prosperity, reconstruction, Cold War, iron curtain
nuclear arms racenuclear disarmament
Reducing atomic weapon stockpiles
disarmament · denuclearization · arms reduction · nuclear nonproliferation · arms control
nuclear arms racedétente
Easing of strained relations
peaceful coexistence · rapprochement · diplomatic engagement · global peace · international cooperation
nuclear arms raceworld peace
Global absence of conflict
collective security · peace dividend · international cooperation