Nuclear warfare (sometimes
atomic warfare or
thermonuclear warfare) is a
military conflict or
political strategy in which
nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. Compared to
conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage, and in a much shorter time. A major nuclear exchange would have long-term effects, primarily from the
fallout released, and could also lead to a "
nuclear winter" that could last for decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack. Some analysts claim that with this potential nuclear winter side-effect of a nuclear war
almost every human on Earth could starve to death. Other analysts, who dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis, calculate that with nuclear weapon stockpiles at
Cold War highs, in a surprise
countervalue global nuclear war,
billions of
casualties would have resulted but billions of people would nevertheless have survived.