nuclear warfare
Bombs destroying cities
Nuclear warfare is armed conflict involving nuclear weapons—bombs or missiles that release energy through atomic fission or fusion, capable of destroying entire cities and producing lasting radioactive contamination.
The term covers both the use of such weapons and the strategic doctrines surrounding them: The Cold War brought the constant threat of nuclear warfare.
Distinguished from conventional warfare by its potential for mass casualties and mutual annihilation.
- atomic bombFission-triggered mass destruction device
- radioactive falloutContaminated particles descending post-blast
- falloutPost-blast atmospheric particles
- warArmed struggle between groups
- hydrogen bombThermonuclear fusion weapon
weapon · arms race · strategic arms · existential threat · duck and cover · first strike · Manhattan Project · plutonium · fallout shelters · red button · genocide · enriched uranium · blast · doomsday clock · apocalypse · contamination · Nagasaki · uranium
- warfarebattle, combat, attack, war, armed conflict
nuclear warfareconventional warfare
Armed conflict using standard military forces
conventional war · hand-to-hand combat · melee combat · guerrilla warfare · trench warfare
nuclear warfarepeace
Freedom from disturbance
world peace · disarmament · nuclear disarmament · peaceful coexistence · global peace
warfare, nuclear, nucleus, nuclei, nuclide, antinuclear, nuclear war, nonnuclear, guerrilla warfare