A dragon will never stop growing “so long as he has food and freedom”-much like nuclear arsenals continually grow in size and lethality, as long as they have inexhaustible budgets. Those who tame them can ride their domesticated beasts into battle as nearly invulnerable weapons of war. Before going further, a dragon primer: In Martin’s creation, dragons are flying creatures that spew fire hot enough to melt steel, concrete, and flesh. Or, as a character repeatedly warns in the first episode: “Winter is coming.”ĭragons 101. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn’t give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.” The United States right now has the ability to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal, but that doesn’t mean we can achieve specific geopolitical goals. “But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I’m trying to explore. “ Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world,” Martin said in 2011. Despite the fantasy setting, the story teaches a great deal about the inherent dangers that come with managing these game-changing agents, their propensity for accidents, the relative benefits they grant their masters, and the strain these weapons impose upon those wielding them. One parallel, however, has escaped analysis: dragons as living, fire-breathing metaphors for nuclear weapons. Martin’s epic fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice-helps explain international relations in the real world. Commentators from institutions such as the Fletcher School of Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, and the have written about how this HBO show-based upon George R.R.
But it has deeper meanings with a surprising number of lessons about peace and security for real life.
#NUCLEAR THRONE WEAPON ID SERIES#
On the surface, Game of Thrones is merely another cable television series with the requisite battles, backstabbing court intrigue, and scantily clad (or unclad) characters. [ Editor’s note: As we enter what is the final-supposedly-season of Game of Thrones, the editors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists thought it appropriate to reprint this 2014 essay.
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