nuclear umbrella
Atomic defense pact
A nuclear umbrella is the protection that a nuclear-armed nation extends to its allies, implicitly threatening nuclear retaliation against any attack on them.
The United States provides a nuclear umbrella over NATO members and allies like Japan and South Korea: Countries under the American nuclear umbrella don't need to develop their own weapons.
The metaphor suggests sheltering from the storm of nuclear war.
- deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences
- mutually assured destructionReciprocal nuclear annihilation threat
- balance of terrorStability through reciprocal threat
- NATOWestern defense organization
- allianceFormal union of parties
defense pact · protection · Cold War · superpower · atomic · atomic bomb · missile · shield · defense · warhead · treaty · proliferation · arms race · fallout · arsenal · security · guarantee · ICBMs
- strategystrategy, grand strategy, tactics, tactic, tactical
- nuclear waratomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, ICBM, mushroom cloud, first strike
- alliancesalliance, allies, ally, coalition, NATO alliance
- defense systemsshield, armor, missile defense, bunker, radar
- NATOArticle 5, military alliance, mutual defense, alliance, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- US-Japan Relationsbilateral talks, defense pact, diplomatic ties, military alliance, security pact
nuclear umbrellaconventional forces
Traditional armed units
territorial defense · self-defense · boots on the ground · missile defense · civil defense
nuclear umbrelladefenselessness
State of being unprotected
neutrality · going it alone · nuclear threat · non-alignment
nuclear, umbrella, nucleus, nuclei, nucleic, nucleotide, nucleotides, nucleolus, umbrellas