Nuclear weapons, the means of producing them, and their potential use play significant roles in international relations and homeland security. Throughout its history, RAND has provided detailed analyses and recommendations for defense planners and helped policymakers make informed national security decisions with regard to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the nuclear activities of India, Pakistan, China, North Korea, Iran, and other nations.
Report
An analysis of the demographic consequences of a nuclear attack on the United States in terms of size of the postattack population; its rate of growth in subsequent decades; its composition by age, sex, and color; and postattack patterns ...
Report
A brief discussion of biological weapons and the effectiveness of nuclear weapons on a civilian population. The discussion is divided into sections dealing with the various effects of nuclear explosions: blast waves, thermal radiation, fallout, groun...
Report
A critical discussion of the prevalent consensus that general war can scarcely occur except through escalation from introducing nuclear weapons into lesser conflicts.
Report
A close analysis of Chinese and Soviet statements about military matters affecting the West. Their positions diverge on the following: war and peace, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and Soviet military assistance to China. The Chinese, though aw...
Report
An examination of attitudes current in 1964 toward the subject of nuclear deterrence in Asia.
Report
A sketch of when, how and why study of nuclear weapon employment in limited wars took place. The paper is based mainly on the author's experiences.
Report
A review of British and American collaboration on the development of the atomic bomb. It lists the contributions made by each, pointing out that the British supplied much more than is generally appreciated. The inter-governmental agreements covering ...
Report
A discussion of possible reasons for Communist China's determination to have a nuclear capability and expression of opinions about use of Chinese nuclear weapons. It is assumed that there would be no major changes in Chinese leadership or goals.
Report
An examination of the problem presented by the proliferation of nations possessing nuclear weapons and of the difficulties encountered in attempting to establish a control system to minimize this proliferation. The author discusses possible steps tha...
Report
Text of a lecture given in January 1963 at IADC in five sections: (1) the most immediate contribution of space technology to hemisphere security is through application to the U.S. strategic deterrent force; ...
Report
A discourse on the safety of Southern California in the event of nuclear attack. The author examines the likelihood of thermonuclear warfare, the consequences of such an attack on our cities, the warning that could be expected, possible targets to be...
Journal Article
There are several roads to, and several kinds of, disarmanent.
Report
Part of a broader investigation concerned with developing practical antineutrino detectors for use against nuclear submarines and rockets, communication by means of neutrino radiation, and a system for monitoring nuclear weapons.
Report
A 1960 attempt to determine when China might obtain an independent atomic bomb capability. The discussion is based on the fact that the research reactor purchased by the People's Republic of China from the Soviet Union became operative in mid-1958 a...
Report
Part of a broader investigation on the objectives of the general and limited war forces of the United States and on the relationship of these objectives to force composition. This study examines one kind of conflict situation, that of limited war. Th...
Report
An appraisal of the deterrence concept as a policy of the United States.
Report
The concluding chapter of a proposed book on Soviet atomic policy. Based on publicly available materials, this research memorandum describes the progress of the USSR atomic energy program: its organization and the nuclear research institutes ...
Report
Another in a series of studies concerned with the general theory of air strategy in a nuclear age. The present study deals with some of the peculiar and historically novel requirements of a deterrence posture.
Report
A discourse on such aspects of the nuclear revolution as its decisiveness, the effect of its development, and the employment of massive retaliation and graduated deterrence. The author concludes that we must follow a path of enlightened self-interest...
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation.