STRATEGIC SITUATION

World tension

24CALM/ 100Rising toward 41.3

DETENTECALMELEVATEDCRISISBRINK

WHAT HOLDS THE FLOOR AT 41.3

BASELINE

+12

always present

VIETNAM

rung 1

ACTIVE CRISES

+12

17 open

ARSENALS

+13.3

122 warheads

CURRENT STRATEGIC EFFECTS

GLOBAL READINESS

DEFCON 4

Tightest reading from Vietnam and world tension

PROCUREMENT PRESSURE

x1.06

strategic defence-demand dial

DETENTE PENALTY

-9

goodwill points

NUCLEAR POWERS

🇺🇸United States72 warheadsTHERMONUCLEAR DEVICE

🇸🇺Russia30 warheadsTHERMONUCLEAR DEVICE

🇬🇧United Kingdom20 warheadsTHERMONUCLEAR DEVICE

RECENT MOVEMENTS

No one-off movement is on the ledger. The index is being held by the pressure floor shown above.

◆ VIETNAM · ESCALATION LADDER · RUNG 1 OF 6 · MILITARY ADVISORS · EXPAND

◆ VIETNAM · ESCALATION LADDER · RUNG 1 OF 6

Military advisors

A few hundred officers, training missions, and nobody calls it a war.

RUNG 1

Military advisors

RUNG 2

Materiel and money

RUNG 3

Naval incident

RUNG 4

Air campaign

RUNG 5

Ground commitment

RUNG 6

Full war

READINESS

DEFCON 4

WEST COHESION

EAST COHESION

WAR WEARINESS

PROCUREMENT DEMAND

x1.05

DETENTE PENALTY

-9

US committed support: 24Soviet committed support: 0Turns at war: 0Open the active decision

◆ GLOBAL SITUATION · ACTIVE CONFLICT REGISTERWEEK OF 01 JAN 1959

CONFLICTS · THE WORLD AT WAR

Conflicts of 1959

Every shooting war is a front in one larger one — the Cold War itself sits over all of them.

ACTIVE

conflicts

CRITICAL

active fronts

REGIONAL CONFLICTS · FRONTS OF THE GREATER STRUGGLE

No active conflicts.
The world holds at an uneasy peace — the Cold War endures beneath it.