Under what circumstances, if any, can the use of nuclear weapons be justified or excused?

Under what circumstances, if any, can the use of nuclear weapons be justified or excused?

Stance: Against — they cannot be justified or excused.

Definitions

• Nuclear weapons: weapons of mass destruction whose destructive capacity derives from nuclear fission/fusion, uniquely capable of indiscriminate devastation beyond conventional arms.
• Justified: morally or legally warranted within frameworks such as Just War Theory, IHL, or utilitarian ethics.
• Excused: less stringent than justified — implies mitigating circumstances (supreme emergency, deterrence), but not moral correctness.
• Circumstances: exceptional contexts invoked to permit use (national survival, deterrence, retaliation).

Assumptions under challenge

1. That it is logically possible to reconcile nuclear weapons with international law and moral principles.
2. That extreme circumstances (existential threats) alter the calculus to make nuclear use permissible.