a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought
핵전쟁에는 승자가 없다
A principle first declared by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in the joint statement of the November 1985 Geneva Summit, which became the foundational sentence opening all subsequent U.S.–Soviet arms control negotiations. It was the first time the leaderships of both superpowers publicly and jointly acknowledged that victory in a nuclear war is impossible and that such a war must therefore never be fought. Reaffirmed at the Biden–Putin and Putin–Xi summits in 2021 and adopted as a P5 joint statement in 2022, the principle remains a touchstone of nuclear diplomacy even as tensions over its implementation persist.
In depth
Origins and Context
The principle first appeared in the 'Security' section of the joint statement issued at the Reagan–Gorbachev summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19–21 November 1985. The text reads: "The sides, having discussed key security issues, and conscious of the special responsibility of the USSR and the U.S. for maintaining peace, have agreed that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." The next sentence affirmed that they "will not seek to achieve military superiority."
The formulation's roots trace back to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, after which Washington and Moscow developed an increasingly shared recognition of the risks of nuclear war. Precedents include the 1971 Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Outbreak of Nuclear War and the 1973 Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War. Reagan himself had used the phrase earlier, in an April 1982 radio address: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."
Significance and Impact
The principle was more than rhetoric. It laid the foundation for the series of summits that followed: Reykjavík (1986), Washington (1987), Moscow (1988). It paved the way for the INF Treaty (1987) and START I (1991). Known as the Reagan–Gorbachev Principle or the Reagan–Gorbachev Formula, it is widely regarded as the symbolic starting point of the Cold War's end.
21st-Century Reaffirmations
In June 2021, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin reaffirmed the principle at their Geneva summit; later that same month, Putin and Xi Jinping did the same. In January 2022, all five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the P5) adopted a joint statement declaring that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." The UK and France initially hesitated to reaffirm it, and the nuclear buildup of the 2020s underscores the gap between the principle and present realities.
Sources
- reaganlibrary.gov full text of the 21 November 1985 joint statement containing the original phrase in the Security section
- presidency.ucsb.edu verified copy of the same joint statement confirming exact wording
- armscontrol.org Lewis Dunn and William Potter, Arms Control Today, March 2020: detailed history tracing the principle from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis through the 1970s agreements to the 1985 Geneva summit and 2020s reaffirmation efforts
- europeanleadershipnetwork.org ELN backgrounder: context, P5 dynamics, and 2021 Biden–Putin and Putin–Xi reaffirmations
- gorby.ru Gorbachev Foundation, June 2005: Gorbachev's own account of the Geneva summit confirming the Russian phrasing «ядерная война никогда не должна быть развязана, в ней не может быть победителя»
- Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia article on the Geneva summit, used for factual background on the meeting schedule and context