Bernard Brodie (military strategist)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bernard Brodie" military strategist – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bernard Brodie
Born	(1910-05-20)May 20, 1910 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 24, 1978(1978-11-24) (aged 68) California, U.S.
Known for	The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order
Spouse	Fawn M. Brodie ​ (m. 1936)​
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Chicago Ph.B, Ph.D
Thesis	Sea Power in the Machine Age (1940)
Doctoral advisor	Jacob Viner
Academic work
Discipline	Military strategist
Sub-discipline	Nuclear strategy
Institutions	Dartmouth College Yale University RAND Corporation UCLA

Bernard Brodie (May 20, 1910 – November 24, 1978) was an American military strategist well known for establishing the basics of nuclear strategy.^[1] Known as "the American Clausewitz," and "the original nuclear strategist," he was an initial architect of nuclear deterrence strategy and tried to ascertain the role and value of nuclear weapons after their creation.

Brodie was initially a strong supporter of the concept of escalating responses; he promoted the view that a war in Europe would be started with conventional forces and escalate to nuclear only if and when necessary. After a meeting with French counterparts in 1960, he came to espouse a very different policy, one based purely on nuclear deterrence with the stated position that the US would use nuclear arms at the first instance of hostilities of any sort. Brodie felt that anything short of this seriously eroded the concept of deterrence and might lead to situations where one side might enter hostilities believing it could remain non-nuclear. This change in policy made Brodie increasingly at odds with his contemporaries.