First strike, or preemptive strike, is a nuclear strategy doctrine under which a power seeks to disarm or cripple an adversary's ability to retaliate by striking its nuclear forces first, before they can be launched. It stands opposite to second-strike doctrine, and the tension between the two shaped Cold War nuclear force planning and arms-control negotiation. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Origin YearThe cited source gives no single founding date for first-strike theorizing; it emerged across US and Soviet Cold War strategic literature through the 1950s alongside second-strike and deterrence theory, with no one publication the sources agree is the origin. 1950 is entered only as an order-of-magnitude placeholder for that decade, not a documented origin year. Core ClaimStriking an adversary's nuclear forces first, before they can be launched, can disarm or cripple the opponent's ability to retaliate. 1 Connections
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Source Wikipedia: First Strike (Nuclear Strategy)
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Source Wikipedia: No First Use
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Source Wikipedia: First Strike (Nuclear Strategy)
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1. Wikipedia: First Strike (Nuclear Strategy)
Wikipedialead paragraph
In nuclear strategy, a first strike or preemptive strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force.
article as a whole, no dated origin given
First-strike attack, the use of a nuclear first strike capability, was greatly feared during the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet Bloc.
Associated With: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), Anti-first-strike countermeasures section
According to the theories of nuclear deterrence and mutual assured destruction, full countervalue retaliation would be the likely fate for any state that unleashed a first strike.
View the Source Wikipedia: No First Use
WikipediaAssociated With: No First Use, lead paragraphQuote, Associated With: No First Use, lead paragraph
A no first use (NFU) policy is a commitment by a nuclear power not to initiate the use of nuclear weapons.
Open Questions (1 open question)
When did first-strike nuclear doctrine originate as a distinct strategic concept?
The cited source (Wikipedia: First Strike (Nuclear Strategy), EntitySourceId 533045) discusses the concept across the article as a whole with no single dated origin given; it emerged gradually across US and Soviet Cold War strategic literature through the 1950s alongside second-strike and deterrence theory, with no one publication the sources agree is the origin. This atlas currently records 1950 only as an order-of-magnitude placeholder for the decade, per the entity's own origin-year StatusNote.
What would resolve this A specific, sourced founding publication or strategic-policy document that historians of nuclear strategy credit as first naming or formalizing first-strike doctrine as distinct from general preemptive-attack theory.
history of nuclear strategyWikipedia: First Strike (Nuclear Strategy)
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