Nuclear Deterrence

Nuclear Deterrence

What it is

Nuclear deterrence is a strategy in international relations where the threat of retaliatory nuclear force prevents nations from launching a nuclear attack. It relies on the idea that the potential consequences of a nuclear conflict are so severe that they dissuade states from engaging in such actions.

The whole point of even having nuclear weapons means, that the actor gets an automatic psychological defense against first strikes.

The folly of Donald Trump

On june 16th 2025, Donald Trump, the most powerful man on the planet, told the Iranians to evacuate Teheran. The social media post mentioned the words "nuclear weapon". The result was mass panic, when the population began to flee the Iranian capital.

What actually happened was, that Donald Trump implicitly threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iran. He is the sitting POTUS, with a sizable nuclear arsenal, and the most powerful military in the world. Donald Trump bluffed with nuclear weapons, and, in the end, he did not use them.

This comment destroyed decades of careful diplomacy, military planning and decisive actions by the US Armed Forces. The bad actors in the world no longer fear what the US president might do, his words no longer carry the same power.

Donald Trump destroyed the US nuclear deterrence with a single post in social media.

This is an even worse blunder than Joe Biden and his rout from Afghanistan, Donald Trump has made Global Nuclear War more probable.