AH Challenge: Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock is a icon of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine. Simply put, it notes how close humanity is to "midnight," AKA catastrophic destruction. Currently, the world is at five minutes to midnight. The closest the Clock has come to "midnight" was two minutes away in 1953.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create a scenario which causes the Doomsday Clock to move as close as possible to the figurative midnight. For example, write a series of PODs and butterflies that has the Suez Crisis turn ugly or have Russia go crazy in the Caucasus. Make sure the world comes very close to destruction but is able to barely avoid it.
 
I don't think you could get closer to nuclear destruction than the OTL Cuban Missile Crisis IMHO
 
The Doomsday Clock is a icon of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine. Simply put, it notes how close humanity is to "midnight," AKA catastrophic destruction. Currently, the world is at five minutes to midnight. The closest the Clock has come to "midnight" was two minutes away in 1953.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create a scenario which causes the Doomsday Clock to move as close as possible to the figurative midnight. For example, write a series of PODs and butterflies that has the Suez Crisis turn ugly or have Russia go crazy in the Caucasus. Make sure the world comes very close to destruction but is able to barely avoid it.

My current TL has armed warfare that results in a clash between NATO and Soviet troops in Iran, including the use of chemical weapons by Eastern bloc troops in 1969 (though the POD is in '48). That'd probably rank at least a two, maybe a one minute.

And there is nearly a nuclear war between the US and China later on, resulting in the detonation of one Chinese nuclear weapon. It probably only ranks a two given the strained relations between the USSR and China, which made a wider nuclear war less likely.
 
IOTL I'd go for the CMC, or the Able Archer cluster in 1983, with the ME crisis in 1973 not too far behind.

As for taking the clock to less than 1 minute to midnight i'd suggest a scenario where more than the US and SU are involved, so the main superpowers have to worry what their allies/secondary rivals will do.
 
"Minor" Nuclear war

If Israel was being over run, the IDF might well have used a nuclear weapon to break the offensive. That would normally be over before the next issue of the magazine that posts the Doomsday Clock...but if the arabs declared that the use of one weapon of mass destruction merits another, and threatened gas warfare, we could have had an immenent threat of the cease fire being broken with nuclear and gas weapons. That might well merit one minute to midnight...
 
I heard a rumor (haven't researched it very thoroughly) that Israel has a nuclear bomb for just such an occassion. if they are being overun they set it off and destroy the invaders (and most of Israel). their thinking being "Never Again"

what if Russia was couped by the military (a former soviet general out for revenge, or to just push his country back into superpower status) and began a nuclear rearmament as well as seeking new allies (Iran and strenghtening ties with China). however unlikely, they allow Russian nuclear weapons deployed into Iran, thus threatening American positions in the middle east and causing America (and NATO) to strenghten their forces in the middle East as well as deploy nuclear weapons into standby. fortunatly several factors such as negotiations and the General's staff convince him and NATO to back down.


i know it sounds like a copy of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but IMO that is the scenario that would cause the world to come the closest to Nuclear war.
 
I heard a rumor (haven't researched it very thoroughly) that Israel has a nuclear bomb for just such an occassion. if they are being overun they set it off and destroy the invaders (and most of Israel). their thinking being "Never Again"

It's not a rumor. Israel won't admit it has nuclear weapons, but it's been well substantiated that they've had a bomb since the 1960s and now likely have over 100. It's not supposed to be set off inside Israel, it's supposed to be used against Arab countries if they are on the verge of overrunning Israel or use chemical weapons.
 
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