This might qualify for the ASB forum, but I was thinking. We've seen many well-written, horrific nuclear war timelines. But they all seem to follow some general patterns- the Southern Hemisphere is untouched, Latin America and the Oceanians are the new powers, and there are always a few "haven" neutral countries. Maybe I'm mostly thinking of 1983: Doomsday, but other nuke war scenarios seem to generally follow those patterns, albeit to lesser degrees.
So, what if the NATO and Warsaw Pact forces were cynical and evil enough to account for that? Given the size of each side's nuclear stocks at peak levels, subtract the nukes assigned for historical primary/secondary/tertiary targets. Would there be any remaining nukes left? What if a deranged Soviet general decides that they can't leave the Swiss bankers or neutral Monaco running around, trying to rebuild after the final holy war between capitalism and Marxism, and so assigns quadrary targets accordingly? What if a General Ripper at the Pentagon decides that if the world is going to end, they can't let the Latin hordes take over afterwards? What if both sides decide to deprive the other of Australia and New Zealand to flee to. Also factor in the participation of other countries with nuclear weapons, such as China, India, Pakistan, Israel, even South Africa.
Anyone want to try to quantify this?
So, what if the NATO and Warsaw Pact forces were cynical and evil enough to account for that? Given the size of each side's nuclear stocks at peak levels, subtract the nukes assigned for historical primary/secondary/tertiary targets. Would there be any remaining nukes left? What if a deranged Soviet general decides that they can't leave the Swiss bankers or neutral Monaco running around, trying to rebuild after the final holy war between capitalism and Marxism, and so assigns quadrary targets accordingly? What if a General Ripper at the Pentagon decides that if the world is going to end, they can't let the Latin hordes take over afterwards? What if both sides decide to deprive the other of Australia and New Zealand to flee to. Also factor in the participation of other countries with nuclear weapons, such as China, India, Pakistan, Israel, even South Africa.
Anyone want to try to quantify this?