Who would win in Cold War EMP War?

I'm not sure specifically how this might happen, but if EMPs were detonated in the latter part of the Cold War, say in the '80s, which side would come out in the best relative position?
 
The Southern Hemisphere, after the EMP first-strike escalates into WWIII.

(Pretty sure SIOP says to launch, if our satellites, landline communications and power grid are all taken out by surprise)
 
The Southern Hemisphere, after the EMP first-strike escalates into WWIII.

(Pretty sure SIOP says to launch, if our satellites, landline communications and power grid are all taken out by surprise)

Pretty much. The third world countries suddenly become the most technologically advanced nations in terms of usable technology. This in turn, will eventually allow the rest of the world to rebuild its infrastructure at the cost of a lot of pain.

Technology distribution in the future will be much slower because hardening will be required for all except toys and non-essential items.

One thing the extra expense will likely butterfly is the "cheaper to just get a new one father then to fix or upgrade it economy we have." The basic items like cars, major appliances and farm equity will be a lot more expensive due to the hardening requirements.
 
I doubt it would matter that much - hardening against EMP typically adds about 10% to the cost of the electronics in a device, so something like a car would cost a percent or two more. That's pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things.
 

thorr97

Banned
This is one area that I've heard accounts from very informed and reliable folk that draw quite divergent conclusions. Some say that a massive EMP strike would knock us back to the steam era technology level. Others say that it'd be little more than a temporary PITA which we'd quickly overcome and move on from. I'm getting the impression that such a strike would be quite costly in terms of frying quite a few bits of modern electronics but that modern technology is far too robust to be wiped away quite so entirely or easily.
 
I doubt it would matter that much - hardening against EMP typically adds about 10% to the cost of the electronics in a device, so something like a car would cost a percent or two more. That's pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things.
You lose your power-grid though, as high-altitude nukes create devastatingly high voltages in the lines.
 
You do, but not for all that long - see the solar storm that knocked out Quebec for 12 hours in 1989: bad and widespread, but it'll recover quickly. The far bigger issue is that the grid has a relatively small number of large, centralised power stations and is increasingly reliant on mains gas and so often placed in large conurbations. Any large nuclear strike is going to take an awful lot of the generation capacity out, and with it the ability to run the grid.
 
Top