As the United Kingdom’s status, has declined in the world people have argued that its nuclear arsenal is obsolete. In this essay, I intend to argue that its nuclear arsenal is not obsolete but rather is of vital importance for the United Kingdom’s national interest and security and should be maintained. I will achieve this goal by at first looking at the types of threats that are facing the United Kingdom before moving on to where the threats are originating from then I will argue the positive case for why I believe the nuclear arsenal is not obsolete and I will rebut some counterarguments to these arguments I will finish by wrapping this all together in a conclusion. In its review of security threats to the United Kingdom (HM Government, 2015) found that a Nuclear attack was in a 2nd tier ranking of threats behind the 1st tier of Terrorism, international military conflict, cyber-attacks, public health …show more content…
This suggests there is clear intent to acquire a nuclear weapon and indicators point to the fact they would want to use it if they were able to acquire nuclear capability but it might be hard to see how nuclear weapons can act as a deterrent here as non-state actors may not have clearly defined territory and they may not act as rationally as state actors. The next threat I will examine is North Korea whose nuclear capability is unclear on whether or not they actually have nuclear weapons although there have certainly been nuclear weapon tests with the yield of these tests increasing and has reached 25 kilotons according to (BGR, 2016) and North Korea have stated an intent to use nuclear weapons although the likelihood of them choosing to and having the capability for attacking the United Kingdom is extremely low due to North Korea’s main targets seeming to be South Korea, Japan and the
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.
Nolan, Janne E. 1999. An Elusive Consensus: Nuclear Weapons and American Security After the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press.
Nuclear weapons are a problem that the world is facing today as countries want to have their
---. “Nuclear Modernization in China.” In Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World, edited by Ray Acheson, 17-26. New York: Reaching Critical Will, 2012.
Eric Schollser argues in his paper “Today’s Nuclear Dilemma,” that the nuclear weapons in the world, and the issues that they are associated with, should be of major concern to today’s society. Nuclear Weapons were of world wide concern during the time of the Cold War. These weapons, and their ability to cause colossal devastation, brought nightmares into reality as the threat of nuclear war was a serious and imminent issue. The US and Russia both built up their inventories of these pieces of artillery, along with the rest of their arsenals, in an attempt to overpower the other. This past terror has become a renewed concern because many of the countries with these nuclear weapons in their control have started to update their collections. One
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.
Out of all the dangerous powers and authority our government wields, possibly the most threatening powers are nuclear weapons. People tend to be frightened by things they do not understand, which make nuclear weapons a perfect catalyst for fear. These weapons have the most overwhelming and destructive power known to man; although, nuclear weapons are only safe in countries that try to maintain harmony and stability. Nuclear weapons are defined as “explosive devices whose destructive potential derives from the release of energy that accompanies the splitting or combining of atomic nuclei.” This power is both dangerous and unstable in the hands of small erratic countries.
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 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.
“UK must keep Trident nuclear deterrent- David Cameron.” BBC News. BBC, 04 Apr. 2013. Web.
A nuclear weapon in current society places great danger and risk on our states, even though the creating and usage for a nuclear weapon at the time was to ultimately uphold state security for the duration of the cold war, by states keeping nuclear weapon was a way of assuring security. After the cold war, the idea of having security ‘Nuclear Weapon’ decreased chances of getting threats from other states this installed confidence amongst states, nevertheless dependence on the nuclear weapon for protection is gradually becoming dangerous.
Ronald E. Powaski, March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present, (Oxford: OUP, 1987), 106.
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.
Ukraine is a nation that voluntarily disposed its nuclear arsenal and ICBMs . In Mid nineties it was the possessed the third largest nuclear arsenal. Though the disposal of nuclear arsenal was n't taken for granted, it involved an economic incentives. If ukraine had those nuclear weapons , there would have a minimum credible deterrence. Nuclear Abilit...