Mutually Assured Destruction
The Basic Idea
If mutually assured destruction sounds like a daunting concept, that’s because it is. It is a military strategy used in wars or combat where if either side makes an attack, the destruction of both sides is ensured. As a result, in this situation, a stalemate arises. Peace is ensured through a guarantee that each side has the ability to destroy the other and will do so if necessary.
Although mainly a term used in military strategy and jargon, the foundations of mutually assured destruction, competition, and trust are also relevant to aspects of our relationships with others today.1
We often find ourselves in competitive environments, especially when it comes to the workplace. While our desire to ‘win’, or succeed, is often at the forefront of our justification for making particular decisions, the mutually assured destruction phenomenon asks us to what end and at what cost we are willing to participate in those behaviors. If we behave in a particular way to advance our own careers – such as exposing a coworker for dropping the ball on a project, for example – we are likely to meet retaliation – that coworker might respond by informing the boss, for instance. A level of trust must therefore be maintained between us and our competitors, to avoid a snowball of everyone’s suffering.
Knowing that we are in a relationship in which mutual destruction is at risk therefore begs the question: Is it worth it to make a move?
I gain nothing by having a rock in my boxing glove if the other fellow has one too.
– A quote from Sax Rohmer’s book The Shadow of Fu-Manchu2
