136 books
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Patrick Anderson
https://www.goodreads.com/pmanderson
Depending on the assumptions, American fatalities would range from negligible in the best case to 70 percent of the population in the worst. “In thermonuclear war,” Kaysen wrote, “people are easy to kill.”
“In my mind are all the tides, their seasons, their ebbs and their flows. In my mind are all the halls, the endless procession of them, the intricate pathways. When this world becomes too much for me, when I grow tired of the noise and the dirt and the people, I close my eyes and I name a particular vestibule to myself; then I name a hall.”
― Piranesi
― Piranesi
“Nuclear posture is the incorporation of some number and type of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles state's overall military structure, the rules and procedures governing how those weapons are deployed, when and under what conditions they might be used, against what targets, and who has the authority to make those decisions. Nuclear posture is best thought of as the operational, rather than the declaratory, nuclear doctrine of a country; while the two can overlap, it is the operational doctrine that generates deterrent power against an opponent. To put it bluntly, states care more about what an adversary can credibly do with its nuclear weapons than what it says about them.”
― Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict
― Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict
“I realised that the search for the Knowledge has encouraged us to think of the House as if it were a sort of riddle to be unravelled, a text to be interpreted, and that if ever we discover the Knowledge, then it will be as if the Value has been wrested from the House and all that remains will be mere scenery.”
― Piranesi
― Piranesi
“May your Paths be safe, your Floors unbroken and may the House fill your eyes with Beauty.”
― Piranesi
― Piranesi
“The basic point is that nuclear postures matter to the pattern of conflict a state experiences. Not only do regional powers select different strategies and postures, but those choices have critical implications for their ability to deter armed attacks. Nuclear weapons may deter, but they deter unequally.”
― Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict
― Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict
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