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Nuclear War: A Scenario

by Annie Jacobsen

A countdown through nuclear decision-making

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Hardcover New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist

    The book was a finalist for the prize.

  • Bestseller

    Instant New York Times bestseller

  • Editorial selection

    NPR Books We Love selection

    Selected as one of NPR's Books We Love.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A countdown through nuclear decision-making

Annie Jacobsen examines the minutes following a nuclear missile launch, tracing the technologies, safeguards, response plans and intelligence involved in decisions made under extreme time pressure. The scenario draws on interviews with military and civilian experts who helped build the weapons, knew the plans or held responsibility for possible responses. Its scope connects operational details with the broader risks of escalation, presenting nuclear war as a chain of decisions in which one launch could prompt another. A new afterword is included in this paperback edition.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in nuclear weapons and military history.
  • For readers seeking an account of nuclear response planning and the risks of escalation.
  • For readers interested in expert interviews about military and civilian decision-making.

Themes

Nuclear warfareMilitary planning and safeguardsEscalation and intelligenceHigh-stakes decision-making

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Book overview

The INSTANT New York Times bestseller

Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller

Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize

One of NPR's Books We Love

One of Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of the Year

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize


"In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail...Terrifying."--Wall Street Journal

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.


Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in--where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world's end requires massive decisions made on seconds' notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Biological War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.
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