Books

okay, read enough books about how nuclear weapons are bad, end of the world, manmade horrors beyond your comprehension, whatever

what’s the best book on why nuclear weapons and MAD are actually really good?

The seminal text here is "The Nuclear Revolution" by Jervis. He argues that nuclear weapons bring stability -- not because of MAD but because of what he calls "nuclear danger." 

Traditionally, deterrence requires a balance of power -- i.e. your military is about as strong as your opponent's military, therefore war is only worth it if you think you have a decisive advantage.

However, w/nuclear weapons it doesn't matter if you have more nukes than the other side because getting hit with even one nuke is considered unacceptable. 

So while nukes prevent world war between evenly matched (conventionally speaking) adversaries they also prevent conflicts between conventionally mis-matched countries (i.e. US/NK, India/Pakistan) 

Link to nuclear danger:

The seminal text here is "The Nuclear Revolution" by Jervis. He argues that nuclear weapons bring stability -- not because of MAD but because of what he calls "nuclear danger." 

Traditionally, deterrence requires a balance of power -- i.e. your military is about as strong as your opponent's military, therefore war is only worth it if you think you have a decisive advantage.

However, w/nuclear weapons it doesn't matter if you have more nukes than the other side because getting hit with even one nuke is considered unacceptable. 

So while nukes prevent world war between evenly matched (conventionally speaking) adversaries they also prevent conflicts between conventionally mis-matched countries (i.e. US/NK, India/Pakistan) 

Link to nuclear danger: https://archive.org/details/meaningofnuclea00jerv/page/n285/mode/2up