ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a strong moral presumption against any use of nuclear weapons, while any very large-scale use even against military targets, more cities, would be morally forbidden. Historically, nuclear weapons first appeared at the end of a long war in which city bombing had been regular practice. The success of that policy had been, of course, decidedly mixed: against Germany, in particular, area bombing had signally failed to induce surrender, much greater success having been achieved by the precision bombing of the last year of the war against military and related targets, including transportation and oil production facilities. A countercombatant targeting policy would thus meet the requirements of stable and effective deterrence. Such a policy, by deliberately seeking to minimise non-combatant casualties, may appear vastly preferable morally to a policy based on mutual assured destruction, which seeks to maximise such casualties.
