ArchivesBernard Brodie (1909-1978) is Professeur at Yale, Research Fellow at the RAND Corporation (1951-1966). Called the 'American Clausewitz', this major thinker ofnuclear strategies publishes in 1946 The Absolute Weapon, Atomic Power and World Order, the first global study on the atom and its role in the international actors' strategies. He will soon broaden his thinking to air strategies. In 1960, four of the five Members of UN Security Council have the bomb and the cold war threatens to turn itslef into a 'real' war. This text has been published for the first time in Politique étrangère, n° 6/1960.