Dictionary

fail-deadly en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌfeɪlˈdɛdli/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el-der. Proto-Italic *falsō? Classical Latin fallere Vulgar Latin *fallīre Old French falirbor. Middle English failen English fail Proto-Indo-European *dʰew-der. Proto-Germanic *dawjaną Proto-Germanic *daudaz Proto-West Germanic *daud Old English dēad Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Old English dēadlīċ Middle English dedly English deadly English fail-deadly From fail (verb) + deadly, modelled on fail-safe.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Of a nuclear weapons strategy: encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack, even if the command-and-control infrastructure has been damaged by the enemy's first strike.
   • One, admittedly extreme, means of reducing the impact of a command, control, and communication failure would be the adoption of a "fail deadly" mode of operation. For example, as opposed to requiring a positive signal to proceed on to target after launch-on-warning, airplanes might be permitted to continue until a negative recall signal were received. The risk of unauthorized action would be increased, as would the danger of accidental or inadvertent war due to equipment malfunction. 1976 May 15, Lewis A. Dunn, Herman Kahn, “Parameters of Nth Country Nuclear-weapon Programs and Postures”, in Trends in Nuclear Proliferation, 1975–1995: Projections, Problems, and Policy Options: Final Report (HI-2336/3-RR), Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.; Paris: Hudson Institute, →OCLC, page 92:
   • [F]ail-deadly is a concept from nuclear military strategy, suggesting deterrence by an immediate and forceful response to an attack. It is interesting to investigate what differentiates these two design approaches to security protocols, and what they have in common when we consider a family of protocols where both fail-safe and fail-deadly versions are considered. 2018, “Preface”, in Vashek Matyáš, Petr Švenda, Frank Stajano, Bruce Christianson, Jonathan Anderson, editors, Security Protocols XXVI: 26th International Workshop, Cambridge, UK, March 19–21, 2018: Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 11286), Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page v:
   • If one were to assume a more traditional Realist image of human fallibility, then one's confidence in the safety of the elaborate nuclear "fail deadly" deterrence order might not be so sanguine. 1993, Daniel Deudney, “Dividing Realism: Structural Realism versus Security Materialism on Nuclear Security and Proliferation”, in Zachary S. Davis, Benjamin Frankel, editors, The Proliferation Puzzle: Why Nuclear Weapons Spread (and What Results) (“Security Studies” Special Issue), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2021, →ISBN, →ISSN, part I (Realist Approaches), page 17:

Relateds

Dead Hand

Translations (7)

fi vikaantuessa tappava (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · he כשל קטלני (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · fr échec mortel (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · pl prowadzący do katastrofy (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · as নষ্ট-ঘাতক (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · ar فَشَل قَاتِل (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack) · cmn 失效致禍 /失效致祸 (encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack)