ABSTRACT
In most periods, war has paid for the state that won. To inflict high costs on the opponent a state had first to defeat its army. And only one side could do that. For the superpowers the situation is different today. 1 Each side can protect itself only by destroying the adversary’s strategic nuclear weapons, and this ability is no longer a prerequisite to the ability to destroy the adversary. When neither side has the first-strike capability needed for defense and both sides have a second-strike capability for deterrence, 2 even if 273one side could “win” a war the loser could inflict extreme punishment on the winner. Mutual second-strike capability implies not overkill but mutual kill.
