'sum of all fears'

from a practical standpoint the threat of nuclear war is one of the few(likely the only) things that can be controlled and as such be usable as a 'scare event' with cooperation between whitehats on either side of the 'conflict' ensuring 100% control of the variables and zero chance of going out of control....

edit: knowing the future does help, especially as far as dealing with something like a singular detonation or dirty bomb that is likely impossible to stop, for 20+ years now I've had the word from a particular 'grouping' that a nuclear event may be allowed(and nope, not saying, everything in order and not time for that bit yet(no one would currently believe me, much like people wouldn't believe much of the things that have happened in the last 5 years if told about it a few years prior...)...)

'sum of all fears'

from a practical standpoint the threat of nuclear war is one of the few(likely the only) things that can be controlled and as such be usable as a 'scare event' with cooperation between whitehats on either side of the 'conflict' ensuring 100% control of the variables and zero chance of going out of control....