the fear of MAD also implies that a big power spends a lot of effort to avoid running into a direct military confrontation against another great power; direct c

the fear of MAD also implies that a big power spends a lot of effort to avoid running into a direct military confrontation against another great power; direct confrontations run the risk of escalating into all out war. That's why you have so many proxy conflicts - these ugly little conflicts add some layers of indirection so to speak.