Nuclear War: A Scenario — Annie Jacobsen’s Unflinching Look at the Unthinkable

A real-world, research-based scenario that shows how quickly the next nuclear war could start—and why prevention is our only defense

This is our last post on nuclear war for a while.

We started with the story of the 509th Composite Group in Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima. Then came The New Nuclear Age, a look at how we navigate today’s nuclear landscape.

In that last post, we hinted at the truth: we still live on the edge. Thousands of nuclear weapons remain on alert. Ready to launch.

Today, we step into a fictional scenario—fictional, yes, but built on real weapons, doctrine, and history.

The book is Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Let’s dig in.