Editor's note: This is part of a regular series about the courses being taught at Nebraska's colleges and universities, as well as the instructors and students involved in them.
For generations, Americans have lived with the understanding -- perhaps subconsciously -- the world could end in an atomic fireball at any moment.
The idea behind “mutually assured destruction,†a term that has been around for nearly 60 years, is if one country with nuclear weapon capabilities strikes another country with nuclear weapon capabilities, the odds either country survives are slim.
Writers, filmmakers and video game designers have envisioned mutually assured destruction in movies like "Dr. Strangelove" and the "Terminator" franchise, but -- at least as of this writing -- we continue on with our lives under the crosshairs of nuclear threat.
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How the delicate global order that emerged during the Cold War is maintained is the subject of an Honors Program seminar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln titled “You MAD Bro? Mutually Assured Destruction, Deterrence and Assurance: The Politics of Nuclear Weapons.â€
Tyler White, an assistant professor of practice in political science who has taught the UHON 395H seminar for four years, said nuclear proliferation and the world it has created often “falls through the cracks in the public imagination†as well as student education.
“This is existentially important stuff,†White added, “but we don’t think about it.â€
His course explores the role nuclear weapons have played in the dramatic drop of wars between countries, whether nuclear weapons should be considered tools of war or diplomacy, and if the doomsday weapons should continue to exist in the 21st century.
This week’s class discussion -- “How to Build a Nuclear Weapon (don’t try this at home)†-- sought to expand students’ understanding of why certain countries have nuclear weapons and why others do not.
Seated in a large circle in the basement of the Knoll Residential Center, the students discuss the resource- and energy-intensive process of enriching uranium to become weapons-grade, how nuclear weapons have become more efficient and deadlier, as well as the role different weapons play in the nuclear arsenals of countries like the United States and Russia.
Students also talked about their recent trip to last week’s Operational Law Conference at U.S. Strategic Command in Bellevue, where they had the opportunity to listen to combat commanders, nuclear physicists and other national security professionals talk about the current state of nuclear deterrence.
“Hopefully, I gave them more than they were bargaining for,†White said of the conference. “It’s kind of a tutorial in the nuclear enterprise for non-nuclear people, which makes it a great forum to take students to.â€
Later this semester, students will be given research questions developed by STRATCOM’s Deterrence and Assurance Academic Alliance, and analysts from the base down Interstate 80 will walk them through how they think about the problem and point them to real resources.
Ashlee McGill, a junior from Bennington who will graduate next May to pursue a career working in criminal law and drug courts, is taking the seminar to fulfill a political science requirement, but said discussions have helped her think about how power and the perception of power works on a global scale.
“I’ve heard of game theory and I know how it works in theory, but how does it actually unfold? Why do arms races happen?†she said. “Perceptions often play a huge role and what you think is happening is rarely what is actually happening.â€
Jordan Duffin Wong, a senior math, economics and political science major from Kearney, said he took the class to learn from White, -- “who is, for my money, one of the best instructors at the university†-- and because of the place mutually assured destruction holds in his imagination.
“I grew up on a steady diet of pop culture that involved nukes,†Duffin Wong said.
As an aspiring academic, Duffin Wong said observing how White engages with the class of roughly 20 honors students, regardless of the class topic, has been instructive for his own career goals.
“At the undergraduate level, a lot of success or failure is predicated on the quality of instruction,†he said. “I’m told the best way to learn something is to do it yourself, but after that, watch people who are good at it.â€
Although neither McGill nor Duffin Wong plan to enter the national security sector upon graduation, White said one of his former students in the honors seminar is working at STRATCOM while another is also in the intelligence community.
That’s pretty cool, White said, and important. During a lunch with Admiral Cecil Haney a few years ago, the former STRATCOM commander told White the existence of nuclear weapons and the idea of mutually assured destruction doesn’t worry him.
“(Haney) said ‘what I worry about is education and making sure the next generation of these professionals are ready to take up that mission,’†White said. “I sort of took that seriously because there’s something I can do about that.â€