Nukes haven't been used since WW2, but we don't know how much luck or chance has been involved in that. So it's hard to say they stopped wars between major powers. I think there are many other factors involved anyway--the simple bombing cities capability is enough to make wars prohibitively expensive between major powers.

If everyone had them, some nutcase would use one.

Quote Originally Posted by CountArach View Post
Nope. A greater public awareness and a more personalised up-to-the-second news coverage of conflicts means that, as ill-informed by the news media as people may be in some situations, they are still going to hold some opinion. I seriously doubt that the overwhelming majority of people in a western democracy would stand for the use of nuclear weapons by their government and I think that almost all government leaders know this. As such their effectiveness as a deterent is really a non-issue in my book, because everyone knows that the other guy isn't going to use them anyway. As for Russia (which can hardly be considered democratic), I just can't see them risking it.
I think people would quite easily support the use of nuclear weapons under the right circumstances.