A Limited Nuclear War, Not Possible

According to recent podcast analysis by defence and geopolitical experts, some Western countries are changing their military doctrine in anticipation of a limited strategic nuclear conflict. The goal of this strategy is to deter adversaries by establishing a proportionate and credible response to the possible limited use of a nuclear weapon, to avoid any nuclear use in the first place, rather than to fight such a war.

​This tactic is very confusing, though. The idea of a "winnable" or "controllable" nuclear conflict, according to critics, is a dangerous delusion. They argue that it would be nearly impossible to stop a swift and disastrous escalation into a full-scale thermonuclear exchange, a conflict in which there can be no winner, once the nuclear threshold is crossed due to the stresses of fear, uncertainty, and the "fog of war."