Editing Weapon (section)

==== Nuclear weapons ====
{{Main|Nuclear holocaust}}
Since the realization of [[mutual assured destruction]] (MAD), the nuclear option of all-out war is no longer considered a survivable scenario. During the [[Cold War]] in the years following World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a [[nuclear arms race]]. Each country and their allies continually attempted to out-develop each other in the field of nuclear armaments. Once the joint technological capabilities reached the point of being able to ensure the destruction of the Earth by 100 fold, a new tactic had to be developed. With this realization, armaments development funding shifted back to primarily sponsoring the development of conventional arms technologies for support of [[limited war]]s rather than [[total war]].<ref name="NuclearDefunding">{{cite journal |year=2004 |journal=The Ploughshares Monitor |volume=25 |issue=4 |author=Estabrooks, Sarah |url=http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/monitor/mond04f.htm |title=Funding for new nuclear weapons programs eliminated |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070620191013/http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/monitor/mond04f.htm |archive-date=June 20, 2007}}</ref>