[Yetanfou]

Well, the threat of nuclear annihilation has helped all the nuclear powers in the world from actually using their weapons, even their low-yield tactical weapons. It might not be logical to bomb them to smithereens after they launched against you but you better hope they assume you will do so in retaliation. As long as everyone thinks you will make good on your promise to launch if attacked, the incentive to attack you is close to zero.

And yes, I know the nuclear powers have fought proxy wars outside of their own territory, That is not what this discussion is about, this is about keeping conflicts from going nuclear. The Soviets first and the Russians after were and are rational countries, unlikely to invite their own destruction by launching against any other the other nuclear powers. The same goes for nearly all other nuclear powers with the possible exception of the North Koreans. The real danger with nuclear weapons is the possibility of them ending up in the hands of irrational actors, pick and choose from religiously motivated terrorist groups to ecofascist organisations and anything in between. It is somewhat surprising that there has not yet been a nuclear bombing by such a group given the supposedly sizeable number of nuclear munitions which have gone missing over time. I can only assume that this means that it is harder than thought to make this actually work.