The explosion of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had a profound impact on not only Japanese and American history, but on that of the world as a whole. For nearly fifty years, the role of nuclear weapons was conceptualized in the US-Soviet bipolar framework, and the study of nuclear weapons-related issues focused on the important questions related to deterring nuclear war between the superpowers, extending nuclear deterrence to allies, and controlling escalation and limiting damage in a nuclear conflict. The study of nuclear strategy, in this superpower context, evolved into issues related to countervalue and counterforce targeting, strategic and tactical nuclear force structures, systems survivability and retaliatory capability. This course will examine the development of nuclear strategy from World War II to the end of the 20th century. It focuses on the effects of nuclear weapons on the conduct of international politics and how people dealt with the issue of the shifting strategic balance, especially the loss of the American nuclear monopoly. The course will examine key debates and policies regarding nuclear weapons, including aspects of morality and ethics of nuclear weapons, and address basic questions of nuclear deterrence and warfighting: Why did the US drop atomic bombs on Japan? Why did the US and the Soviet Union build such large nuclear arsenals? How did nuclear weapons fit into US and Soviet military strategy at various phases of the Cold War? The course then examines the development of the US inventory, the causes and impact of proliferation, and the prospects for arms control. It will also consider Cold War crises to illuminate the effect of nuclear weapons on US, Russian, and European foreign policy and international politics during and beyond wartime. The course concludes by exploring the relevance of the classics of nuclear strategic thinking to the recent nuclear doctrine and how they relate to the future of nuclear