Seventy-nine years ago, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies ending World War II in Europe. That war was fought along Clausewitzian lines in which the Allies overwhelmed the Wehrmacht on the battlefield and its bombers obliterated Germany’s industry and economy.

Three months later, this Clausewitzian system and the nature of war would be forever changed.

Two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945 produced such shock and awe that a resoundingly defeated society surrendered. But it was thermonuclear weapons — at least 1,000 times more powerful than nuclear weapons — that changed warfare.

For the only time in history, thermonuclear war could produce only losers and no winners. Surviving a first strike with enough remaining weapons to destroy the attacker introduced a state of mutual assured destruction or MAD. War or conflict was possible. But no state was prepared to commit suicide in risking a thermonuclear war.

Today, artificial intelligence and the increasing vulnerabilities of advanced society have produced another tectonic, yet less visible, shift. Instead of destroying an enemy’s ability to wage war, disruption has become a more effective metric of success or failure. That does not mean destruction is no longer relevant. But........

© The Hill