Albert Einstein once said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe” (Krieger 4). The debate over the moral and life threatening potential of nuclear weapons has been in question since the first bomb was detonated almost eight decades ago. Nuclear weapons seem rightly owned by the world’s superpowers in order to ensure protection, yet it is feared that nuclear weapons are the horrible remnant of the Cold War that may still potentially cause unilateral destruction. It has been proposed by several benevolent world powers, that nuclear weapons should be banned from the arsenal of all countries who own them, and any country that does not contain nuclear weapons should cease martial nuclear research immediately. In banning nuclear weapons, one beneficial factor would be the elimination of the immense cost that comes with them. In 2008, over 52 billion dollars were allocated for nuclear research and development projects in the U.S. alone (Weeks). The cost to develop, experiment with and manage the waste of nuclear weapons is immense, and at times, it has been a major part of the monetary factor crippling the U.S. into budget. Nuclear weapons alone have cost the U.S. a fortune; the cost has been over 7.5 trillion dollars since the first nuke was made (Krieger 9). By putting a stop to the development of Nuclear weapons, the immense expense that comes with it will also become obsolete, and more resources can be imputed towards beneficial yet monitored energy research. Perhaps the strongest benefit of banning nuclear weapons, no land in any country would ever become uninhabitable due to the devastation of a nuclear bomb. Radiation from a nucl... ... middle of paper ... ...cipice: Catastrophe or Transformation?. Hampshire, ENG: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print. "National High School Debate Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 31 Aug. 2001. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. "Nuclear Weapons Remain an Issue (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 31 Dec. 2004. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Weeks, Jennifer. "Nuclear Disarmament." CQ Researcher 2 Oct. 2009: 813-36. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Cooper. "Weapons of Mass Destruction." CQ Researcher 8 Mar. 2002: 193-216. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Diehl, Sarah J, and James C. Moltz. Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation: A Reference Handbook. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Print. Hansen, Brian. "Nuclear Waste." CQ Researcher 8 June 2001: 489-504. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
The Race To Build A Bomb. National Geographic 208.2 (2005): 102. Middle Search Plus. Web. The Web.
Together with the Soviet Union we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But we must set as our goal not just limiting but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people.
Scott D. Sagan, the author of chapter two of “More Will Be Worse”, looks back on the deep political hostilities, numerous crises, and a prolonged arms race in of the cold war, and questions “Why should we expect that the experience of future nuclear powers will be any different?” The author talks about counter arguments among scholars on the subject that the world is better off without nuclear weapons. In this chapter a scholar named Kenneth Waltz argues that “The further spread of nuclear weapons may well be a stabilizing factor in international relations.” He believes that the spread of nuclear weapons will have a positive implications in which the likely-hood of war decreases and deterrent and defensive capabilities increase. Although there
Nuclear weapons are a problem that the world is facing today as countries want to have their
August 5, 1945. A day that the entire world will remember, as it was the day that the first of two nuclear strikes against Japan ended World War Two. Although at the time “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” were the lesser of two evils, they started an arms race like the world has never seen. The Soviet Union, America, Great Britain, France, and later China, all started to produce nuclear weapons. The arsenals of these countries would soon number in the tens of thousands. Recently there have been pushes to rid the world of these weapons that can kill an entire city with a single push of a button. Although these weapons are in the eyes of several governments a necessary tool to have, the public, however, disagrees. The Americans in particular have been debating the issue for several years. But for America to still pose a threat to other countries, the nuclear arsenal of the United States of America should not be completely depleted but upgraded and decreased to where our enemies still fear us. But we have to make sure that we do not break the bank in the process.
An idea that has not sunk into the politicians and generals of the nuclear powers skulls is the fact that nuclear weapons are expensive. In 1983, a missile submarine cost more than the education budgets of twenty-three 3rd world countries. A comparison for nuclear weapons would be akin to that of computers: It becomes obsolete very quickly, and the state of the art technology used is astronomically maintenance expensive. Building nuclear weapons is like dumping your money in a hole: It is not going to be coming back.
Nuclear Arms, as opposed to conventional arms, generate their destructive force from nuclear reactions. The issues that are related to the use of nuclear weapons is also far different than the issues generated by conventional bombs. The long term
In today’s society, many countries and even citizens of the United States question the U.S. government’s decision to get involved in nuclear warfare. These people deemed it unnecessary and stated that the U.S. is a hypocrite that preaches peace, but causes destruction and death. Before and during World War II the U.S. was presented with a difficult decision on whether or not to develop and use the atomic bomb. The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons.
Nuclear weapons continue to present a real threat to humanity and other life on Earth. Scholars of international relations and policymakers share in the belief that the sheer power and destructiveness of nuclear weapons prevent them from being used by friends and foes alike. Then the real question becomes; what is the need for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons are defined as, volatile device that originates its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release massive amounts of energy from fairly small amounts of matter. Nuclear weapons have greatly changed the way war is fought. Along with these more dominant weapons come ways to control and countermeasure such power. Nuclear weapons have changed the way the world thinks about war. The development of nuclear weapons started rather innocently as a physical wonder but has become a basis of constant fear among many nations.
The first thing to know about nuclear weapons is exactly how much money they have cost the United States? Since the first government supported work on nuclear weapons began in 1940, the United States has spent approximately $4 trillion on its nuclear arsenal as of 1995. This figure is roughly 3 times what the United States spent on World War II. It should also be mentioned that with overhead costs required to develop, produce, deploy, operate, support, and control these weapons, the total would come to approximately an extra $500 billion to $1 trillion dollars once all known costs are documented. Since the conclusion of World War II in 1945, nuclear weapons have been held accountable for the consumption of one quarter to one third of the United States’ military budget.
From the creation of nuclear weapons at the start of the Cold War to today, the world has experienced struggles fueled by the want of nuclear power. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Iran’s nuclear weapon program are some of the most important conflicts over nuclear weapons. Thanks to the use of nuclear weapons in 1945 to end World War II, the world has come extremely close to a nuclear war, and more countries have began developing nuclear power. Unmistakably, many conflicts since the start of the Cold War have been caused by nuclear weapons, and there are many more to come.
Nuclear energy has is an overall success and continues to be because it is a reliable, efficient energy source that produces minimal pollution. Although it is a efficient energy source, it is also a massive destructive force that has been used in the past and can be used in the future if not properly defended against. America today can learn from instances in the 20th century such as the atomic bomb drops, exploration of fusion reactions, the knowledge gained from the three mile island accident, and from espionage. Nuclear technology is basically that manipulation of atoms in their current state. Usually radioactive elements such as high-grade plutonium or uranium are used in order to create a massive radioactive reaction that have the potential to obliterate any object in its way leaving a lasting negative effect on the environment. Nuclear energy was mainly researched for the atomic bomb droppings that occurred in 1945 as a result of Japanese oppression during World War II. The science of atomic manipulation, atomic radiation, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion was first developed in 1895. Research began to significantly speed up when the government took a large interest in the destructive force that nuclear weapons had the potential to hold. The only reason that the world ever had the experience of nuclear energy was because of World War II and oppression. Nuclear Energy came with a price of thousands of lives, that were not rightfully taken, but without those lives lost, our world would be different today, and we continue to learn from the mistakes and from the successes that we have had with nuclear technology.
All over the world, every nation and country have nuclear weapons at hand. Nuclear weapons help protect those countries and nations, they provide global defense. If nuclear weapons were to be outlawed and were no longer able to use then it would decrease the amount of jobs in the nuclear field. Although these weapons of mass destruction can be extremely dangerous and cause harm for billions of people; nuclear weapons provide jobs for many people across the nation. Not only does banning nuclear weapons take away the amount of occupations, but it goes against the right to bear arms. The second
New inventions are created daily; however, it is those that truly change the world that are remembered. The use and discovery of atomic energy negatively impacts the world because of the danger it entails. Many people across the world believe that the use of atomic energy is a mistake based off of past events that have occurred such as the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The abuse of atomic energy has been proven to damage society’s morale, population and could potentially destroy entire populations.
It is a well-known fact that the dropping of the two atomic bombs near the end of World War II in 1945 ushered in the dawn of the Atomic Age. For the first time in human history, the world was introduced to the awesome power of nuclear weapons. Since that time, there have been several different nuclear threats to the world, and one of those threats can be found along the Pacific Rim, in the country of North Korea. Like the dropping of the atomic bombs, it is also known that the North Korean government has admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, and in doing so, it stands as a silent, potential nuclear danger to the rest of the world.