Chapter 8 Key Terms Quiz 2

A situation in which each nuclear superpower has the capability of launching a devastating nuclear second strike even after an enemy has attacked it. The crux of the MAD doctrine is that possessing an overwhelming second-strike capacity prevents nuclear war due to the rational aversion of the other side to invite massive retaliation.

The goal of maintaining the survival of the state through all available means. Originally (and still largely) focused on amassing military strength to forestall the threat of military invasion, national security now also encompasses a broad range of factors related to a nation’s nonmilitary or economic security, material interests, and values.

Explosive devices that derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.

A 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union signed by President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev that eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges.

A close, mutually beneficial arrangement between interest groups, the bureaucracy, and legislators within a given political system that forms the basis for the military-industrial complex.

A term coined by President Dwight Eisenhower that refers to political and economic relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the defense industrial base that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for defense spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and beneficial legislation and oversight of the industry.

The act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing a category of weapons.

The efforts taken by a community of states to protect against threats that are transnational in nature. The responses to these threats are usually multilateral, often involving regional and/or international organizations.

An emerging paradigm for understanding security vulnerabilities that challenges the traditional notion of national security by arguing the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional, and global stability.

This theory asserts that it is possible for a limited nuclear exchange to occur and that nuclear weapons are simply one rung on the ladder of escalation.

Limitation of the production or spread of any form of weaponry. Higher-profile non-proliferation efforts concern nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

A catch-all term referring to the emergence of a multiplicity of “new” (or perhaps newly recognized) threats to the security of states, individuals, and the global system in the contemporary (post–Cold War) world.