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Nuclear War: A Scenario

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Nuclear War: A Scenario
AuthorAnnie Jacobsen
LanguageEnglish
GenreNonfiction
Published2024 (Dutton)
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN978-0593476093

Nuclear War: A Scenario is a 2024 nonfiction book by American journalist Annie Jacobsen. It outlines a timeline of a hypothetical first strike against the continental United States by North Korea.[1][2]

Content

The book covers standard US military protocol in the event of a nuclear first strike against the United States. It particularly highlights launch on warning as a dangerous and potentially catastrophic policy of nuclear armed nations, and concludes that any nuclear conflict has the potential to end in near-total human extinction.[3]

The book is shows a minute-by-minute breakdown from multiple perspectives of a scenario where nuclear world war erupts. In minute 0, North Korea unleashes a surprise attack, launching a Hwasong-17 ICBM with a 1-megaton nuclear warhead at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Later, North Korea strikes Diablo Canyon Power Plant with a Pukguksong-1 SLBM, causing a nuclear meltdown. In response, the United States launches dozens of LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM missiles at North Korea, which must travel over the Arctic circle and Russia to reach its targets. Misunderstanding this as an attack on Russia, the Russian military launches a counterattack on the United States and NATO-allied states.[3] By minute 92 of the conflict, America has been struck by 1,000 Russian nuclear warheads.

The nuclear conflict causes fires throughout the Northern Hemisphere that trigger nuclear winter, preventing agriculture and killing plants, upending food chains. Humanity experiences famine everywhere except the southernmost countries of Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Paraguay. Nuclear fallout causes radiation poisoning. After months, as nuclear winter ends, the ozone layer, damaged by nuclear war, fails to shield life from ultraviolet rays, while insects and plagues from thawing corpses spread aboveground. The Earth takes 24,000 years to recover from nuclear war. The author concludes that the “enemy” was no nation or group, but nuclear weapons.

Adaptation

In April 2024, it was announced that production studio Legendary Entertainment purchased the rights to adapt the book into a film, with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve set to direct.[4]

Publication history

Reception

Public reception has been relatively good, with the book holding a 4.54 out of 5 rating on Goodreads, and 4.6 out of 5 on Amazon.[5]

Barry Gewen, in the New York Times, said of Nuclear War: A Scenario that "Jacobsen, the author of “The Pentagon’s Brain,” has done her homework. She has spent more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts while mastering the voluminous literature on the subject, some of it declassified only in recent years." However, he does raise a question, stating that "If she favors abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, she owes it to her readers to say so, and then explain how it could be done. How do we get from here to there?"[2]

Interviewing Jacobsen herself, Kathy Gilsinan of Politico writes that "Nuclear war would be bad. Everyone knows this. Most people would probably rather not think through the specifics. But Annie Jacobsen, an author of seven books on sensitive national security topics, wants you to know exactly how bad it would be."[6]

In a more mixed case, Steven Poole of The Telegraph praises the book for its factual basis and research, but criticizes the prose as being "overblown", remarking that "In terms of style, Nuclear War appears to have been written for those who find the novels of Dan Brown too sophisticated. Pulp-thrillerish one-sentence paragraphs abound." However, he concludes on a positive note, appraising it as "a more accessible and deeper compendium of the unsettling facts about nuclear history, planning, and devastation[...]".[7]

In contrast, Peter Huessy of Global Security Review has an almost entirely negative appraisal of the work, remarking that "Although there are additional areas where Jacobsen incorporates inaccurate information into her scenario, the point is clear. Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario would be far more accurately titled, Nuclear War: A Novel or Nuclear War: Disarmament Propaganda".[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Borger, Julian (2024-03-31). "'My jaw dropped': Annie Jacobsen on her scenario for nuclear war". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  2. ^ a b Gewen, Barry (March 24, 2024). "Let's Say Someone Did Drop the Bomb. Then What?". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Mechanic, Michael (2024-04-01). "An interview with Annie Jacobsen, author of 'Nuclear War: A Scenario'". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  4. ^ Fleming, Mike (2024-04-04). "Legendary, 'Dune' Helmer Denis Villeneuve Re-Team On 'Nuclear War: A Scenario'". Deadline.
  5. ^ "Nuclear War: A Scenario". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  6. ^ Gilsinan, Kathy (April 29, 2024). "72 Minutes Until the End of the World?". Politico. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  7. ^ Poole, Steven (2024-03-28). "This is how nuclear war would begin – in terrifying detail". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  8. ^ Huessy, Peter (2024-04-11). "Annie Jacobsen Gets It Wrong about Nuclear Deterrence". Global Security Review. Retrieved 2024-05-30.

Further reading

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