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Nuclear blackmail is a form ofnuclear strategy in which a state uses thethreat ofnuclear weapons to compel or deter an adversary's action.
Jeff McMahan argues that nuclear blackmail involves the use of coercive nuclear threats to compel a country to do what it is morally at liberty not to do or to deter a country from doing what it is morally at liberty to do.[1] He notes that whether such a threat constitutes nuclear blackmail often depends on moral judgments about the action compelled or deterred—judgments that are likely to differ between opposing parties.[1]
In 1953, during the final phase of active hostilities in theKorean War and the early period of theEisenhower administration, U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles conveyed messages of nuclear blackmail through indirect channels to the Communists—including the North Koreans, Chinese, and Soviets—warning to put the conflict to an end by using atomic bombs if no progress was made toward a negotiated settlement.[2] Nuclear blackmail may have complicated rather than facilitated an armistice, because the Chinese refused to appease the Americans with their threats and theUnited Nations members such as the British did not support a full-scale escalation.[2]
In January 1955, the Chinese government made the decision to develop the nuclear bomb as a result of the unpredictabilities brought by the nuclear blackmail levied by foreign powers, particularly the United States.[3] On October 16, 1964, whenChina became a nuclear power, the Chinese government stated:
"The Chinese Government fully understands the good intentions of peace-loving countries and peoples in demanding an end to all nuclear tests. But more and more countries are coming to realize that the more exclusive the monopoly of nuclear weapons held by the U.S. imperialists and their partners, the greater the danger of a nuclear war. They are very arrogant when they have those weapons while you haven't. But when those who oppose them also have such weapons, they will not be so haughty, their policy of nuclear blackmail and nuclear threats will not be so effective, and the possibility of complete prohibition and thoroughdestruction of nuclear weapons will increase. We sincerely hope that a nuclear war will never break out. We are deeply convinced that, so long as all peace-loving countries and peoples make joint efforts and persist in the struggle, nuclear war can be prevented."[4]
On September 25, 2024, Putin warnedthe West that if attacked with conventional weapons Russia would consider a nuclear retaliation. Putin went on to threaten nuclear powers that if they supported another country's attack on Russia, then they would be considered participants in such an aggression. This was described by the office of Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy as nuclear blackmail.[5]
Following the2025 India–Pakistan conflict, Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi stated that Pakistan had been engaging in nuclear blackmail, which India would no longer tolerate, adding that the country would not be intimidated by nuclear threats.[6][7][8]
In 1981, theUS Department of Energy security director Martin Dowd said there had been 75 cases in the last five years of nuclear blackmail by people threatening to release radioactive material on the public, in which almost all of the cases were threats by "cranks and weirdos" but several blackmail attempts were serious.[9]