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Larks comments on Thomas C. Schelling's "Strategy of Conflict" - Less Wrong
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Comments (148)
You are the President of the US. You make this announcement. Two years later, your spies tell you that the UK has a well-advanced nuclear bomb research programme. The world is, nevertheless, as peaceful on the whole as in fact it was in the real timeline.
Do you nuke London?
I'd give the following announcement: "People of the UK, please vote your government out of office and shut down your nuclear program. If you fail to do so, we will start nuking the following sites in sequence, one per day, starting [some date]." Well, I'd go through some secret diplomacy first, but that would be my endgame if all else failed. Some backward induction should convince the UK government not to start the nuclear program in the first place.
The UK bomb was developed with the express purpose of providing independance from the US. If the US could keep the USSR nuke-free there'd be less need for a UK bomb. Also, it's possible that the US could tone down its anti-imperialist rhetoric/covert funding so as to not threaten the Empire.