nuclear standoff
Mutually assured stalemate
A nuclear standoff is a tense confrontation between nuclear-armed powers where neither side acts aggressively for fear of triggering catastrophic retaliation.
The term evokes Cold War brinkmanship—missiles pointed at each other, fingers hovering over buttons: The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the superpowers to a nuclear standoff.
The standoff persists precisely because both sides know that escalation means mutual destruction.
- brinkmanshipPushing conflicts to disaster's threshold
- missilesSelf-propelled guided weapons
- deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences
- cold warHostility without open fighting
- crisisDecisive dangerous moment
escalation · showdown · hair trigger · warheads · tensions · diplomacy · stalemate · ultimatum · bunker · command bunker · fallout · ground zero · Cuban · Kremlin · red button · red phone · mutually assured destruction · negotiations
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- Nuclearatomic bomb, atomic bombs, uranium, reactors, fission
- nuclear waratomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, ICBM, mushroom cloud, first strike
- International CrisesCuban Missile Crisis, Iran hostage crisis, hostage crisis, Suez Crisis, Bay of Pigs
- geopoliticsbalance of power, bipolarity, bloc, blocs, brinkmanship
nuclear standoffnuclear war
Armed conflict using fission weapons
hot war · nuclear strike · shooting war · active combat · first strike
nuclear standoffdétente
Easing of strained relations
rapprochement · peaceful coexistence · strategic partnership · alliance · peace agreement
nuclear standoffnuclear disarmament
Reducing atomic weapon stockpiles
denuclearization · disarmament · nuclear-free zone · demilitarization · arms reduction
nuclear, standoff, nucleus, nuclei, nucleic, nucleotide, stand, stands, standing