Technical weapons characteristics no longer distinguish nuclear from conventional arms

Evidence

With the development of small-size, small-yield nuclear weapons suitable for local use by ground troops with modest equipment, and with the development of nuclear depth charges and nuclear rockets for air-to-air combat, the technical characteristics of nuclear weapons have ceased to provide much basis, if any, for treating nuclear weapons as peculiarly different from other weapons in the conduct of limited war. It has, of course, been argued that there are political disadvantages in our using nuclear weapons in limited war, particularly in our using them first. Even those who consider a nuclear fireball as moral as napalm for burning a man to death must recognize as a political fact a worldwide revulsion against nuclear weapons. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 589

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Drone precision claims rest on a misleading comparison across weapon types.; Cheapening nuclear weapons is eroding the precondition for deterrence

Related

• Cheapening nuclear weapons is eroding the precondition for deterrence (similarity 0.81)
• The drone should be judged against equivalent tactical weapons, not older bombers (similarity 0.81)
• Drone missiles have larger lethal radii than conventional infantry weapons (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Cheapening nuclear weapons is eroding the precondition for deterrence #expands (0.80)
• Drone precision claims rest on a misleading comparison across weapon types. #expands (0.78)