States, Nukes and the End of the World?

I've been studying hard in the past week or so, ratcheting up my research in the 'future of nuclear deterrence' - essentially, how after the Cold War, states/societies/individuals could find new ways of deterrence i.e. new ways of threatening each other not to annihilate each other. [for the uninitiated, if you watch enuff Hongkong cop movies, it's all about the good guy and bad guy pointing their pistols at the other's head, threatening the other not to shoot :)]

I've been asked the question many times 'what's your research topic?', and my answer has drawn stares from blank, bewildered to 'this chap is obviously nuts.'

But it's a riveting topic (it's gotta be riveting else one would not spend THREE years trying to find an answer to it). It's all about the many ways in which mankind has devised to kill each other, yet tried to - paradoxically - not to do so in a warped balance of terror. The root of all this, which Christians would identify: the core of man is sinful, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

I could go and on ...

William