@Korrd. I really doubt that one of the superpowers will actually use nukes, for fear or retaliation. I think that the ones to start a war, if one happens, will either be north korea, or china. China has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons, and a great air force (most stolen copies of US weapons), and the motive to start a war. I assume the situation (if it starts with china) will go like this.
1)China makes threats against Taiwan, (again) and Taiwan launches a special forces team to destroy targets.
2)The team is destroyed, and China launches a retaliatory attack. They invade Taipei, and Taiwan cries to the US for help.
3)The US moves a carrier group to the area, and launches attacks upon China.
4)China launches a Kilo-class submarine armed with nuclear-tipped torpedoes. The quiet sub makes it past the anti-sub defenses, and shoots at the carrier.
The carrier is decimated, and the US is too scared to deploy another group to the area.
5)We deploy a sub group to the area, which is surrounded in a port by ships, and is destroyed.
6)The US shoots Tomahawks at China, and they retaliate by shooting down our aircraft.
7)We shoot low-yield nukes at China, and they launch their entire arsenal.
8)We shoot our nukes (we will win, we have the better nukes), and half of the east coast, and china's 1 billion people are killed or homeless.
I'll make a more in-depth scenario, but I'm out of time here.
My 2 cents.
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