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A Realist's Nightmare: Enduring Warnings of Dr. Strangelove
Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities · Area of research: Mutually Assured Destruction Doctrine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I10-1716762
Abstract
Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) operates as far more than political satire. Examined through the theoretical lenses of classical realism, the security dilemma, and mutually assured destruction (MAD), it reveals itself as a systematic critique of the assumptions underpinning nuclear deterrence. This article argues that the film functions as a 'realist nightmare' a world in which rational deterrence logic is fatally undermined by human irrationality, bureaucratic dysfunction, and the paradoxes of automated destruction. Six decades later, the structural dynamics Kubrick dramatised nuclear rivalry, great-power competition, and technological escalation remain disturbingly contemporary.
How to cite this paper
@article{1716762,
author = {Roshni Mehta},
title = {A Realist's Nightmare: Enduring Warnings of Dr. Strangelove},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {9},
number = {10},
pages = {2485-2488},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1716762.pdf},
abstract = {Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) operates as far more than political satire. Examined through the theoretical lenses of classical realism, the security dilemma, and mutually assured destruction (MAD), it reveals itself as a systematic critique of the assumptions underpinning nuclear deterrence. This article argues that the film functions as a 'realist nightmare' a world in which rational deterrence logic is fatally undermined by human irrationality, bureaucratic dysfunction, and the paradoxes of automated destruction. Six decades later, the structural dynamics Kubrick dramatised nuclear rivalry, great-power competition, and technological escalation remain disturbingly contemporary.},
month = {April},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I10-1716762}
}