first strike
Noun: 1. A preemptive military attack, especially with nuclear weapons: The first use of armed force in a conflict, intended to gain a decisive advantage by crippling an adversary's ability to respond. This term is most critically applied to nuclear strategy, where it describes an initial nuclear attack aimed at destroying an opponent's nuclear arsenal before it can be used.
The term is used in military, strategic, and political discourse to discuss doctrine, capability, and policy regarding the initiation of warfare. * A nation's policy might be to never launch a first strike. * Analysts debate the stability of a strategic balance when both sides possess a credible first-strike capability. * The concept is central to theories of deterrence.
- The doctrine of mutually assured destruction is designed to deter either side from attempting a first strike.
- The general argued that developing those missile defenses could be perceived as preparing for a first strike.
- The treaty included a formal pledge of no first strike against any non-nuclear state.
- First-strike capability: The perceived ability of a country to launch a successful first strike that eliminates an enemy's capacity to retaliate effectively. Possessing this capability can destabilize mutual deterrence.
- In extended, non-nuclear contexts, "first strike" can sometimes describe a decisive initial action in a business or legal conflict (e.g., "The company's patent filing was a brilliant first strike in the market war").
- First-strike (adjective): Used attributively to describe weapons, capability, or policy related to such an attack (e.g., , ).
- Preemptive strike: A closely related term for an attack launched to forestall an imminent enemy attack. A first strike can be preemptive, but it may also be purely aggressive.
- Preemptive attack
- Initial attack
- Surprise attack (in a general sense)
- Retaliation
- Second strike
- Retaliatory strike
- No first use: A policy or pledge by a nuclear-armed state not to use nuclear weapons as a means of warfare unless first attacked by an adversary using nuclear weapons.
- Second-strike capability: The assured ability to respond to a first strike with a devastating nuclear counterattack, which is the cornerstone of nuclear deterrence.
- the initial use of nuclear weapons to attack a country that also has nuclear weapons; considered feasible only when the attacker can destroy the other country's ability to retaliate
- the Pakistani president promised no first strike against India