Preview

Nuclear Proliferation

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2320 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nuclear Proliferation
Nuclear Proliferation
INTRODUCTION:
In the world today, there are many controversies that affect our every day lives, and these are important to stay informed about to be informed about. In this paper, I will review the history and up rise of nuclear weapons, and how nuclear proliferation has become a fear for the world. I will describe in detail what treaties, NGO & IGOs are involved with the topic, and the nations involved with nuclear proliferation. The more we know about the history and the present, the better decisions we can make for the future to make the world a better place.
OVERVIEW:
Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, or related research information to nations not recognized as a “nuclear weapon state” by the NPT. The NPT is the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons with signatories from various nations that hope to diminish the threat of nuclear weapons to the world. These weapons are also known as weapons of mass destruction, because its type of explosive can cause enormous damage to thousands of people from its nuclear fission. Nuclear proliferation causes fear around the world because the spread of these weapons can be life threatening, especially when in the hands of those who do not have regard for human life. The vital atomic bomb discoveries began in the 1930s by Enrico Fermi, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassman and Lise Meltner. In the late 1940s, The U.S. used this research to explode the world’s first atomic bomb, known as the “The Trinity Test” in New Mexico, which released 19 kilotons of TNT. This bomb was the most powerful weapon ever used before at that time. The U.S. later used a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan within three days of each other during the closing of World War II. These bombs killed almost 200,000 people, and they later contributed to Japan’s surrender of the war. No nuclear weapons have been used in a war since this event. However, accidents have occurred that has



References: 1. Jeremy Bernstein, Nukes for Sale, The New York Review of Books, April 14, 2010 2 3. ICAN, Nuclear Weapons Timeline, 2013, http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/the-nuclear-age/#.UXlD33BghTU 4 7. Chaffee, Devon, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation “North Korea’s Withdrawal from Nonproliferation Treaty, 2003 April 10 http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2003/04/10_chaffee_korea-npt.htm 8 13. Schell, Jonathan, The Nation “The Spirit of June 12”, 2007 June 14 http://www.thenation.com/article/spirit-june-12#

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    U.S World History 05.06

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Despite the fall of the Soviet Union 19 years ago in 1991, the issue of nuclear arms, besides terrorism, remains one of the chief security concerns in the contemporary world. Accordingly, the following issues concerning nuclear arms remained unresolved security concerns.Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These events not only brought about the surrender of the Japan and an end to World War II, but they also helped shaped the nature of international politics for the next six decades.The atomic bomb is the crudest form of a series of powerful nuclear weapons to be eventually developed and come into existence. Both superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, eventually built massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. This escalation of nuclear arms possession led to…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    In both cases, protagonists were influenced by the particular events, their domestic and geo-political state of affairs and the signals delivered and counter offers made from parties involved. This essay analyses the scenario, role of actors, and description of the outcomes of the two crises. The paper argues that the advent of the nuclear age, following World War II in 1945, shaped contemporary international relations. What makes the Cuban Missile Crisis fundamentally different was precisely because it occurred during nuclear age. This essay will outline some of the concepts such as deterrence, mutual assured destruction doctrine, and the concept of balance of terror to justify why the nuclear age has shaped events after World War II. The essay concludes by affirming the need to rethink and revisit the role of nuclear weapons in the 21st century.…

    • 2601 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Non Proliferation act of 1968 was created to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. 85 percent of the world’s countries signed it. Non nuclear countries agreed to not make or accept nukes from anyone. Countries that had them could not build or share them. The International Atomic Energy Agency was created by the UN to inspect countries to ensure nuclear facilities were operating under peaceful terms but the NPT hasn 't been entirely successful. India and Pakistan tested nukes in 1998 and Israel 's nuclear capability is an open secret. None of those countries signed the NPT in 1968. North Korea did sign the treaty in 1970 but violated it in the 1990s when it started developing nukes and more recently in 2006 when they tested one.…

    • 3654 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scare

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In addition to the reduction in weapons, the number of countries which were developing, had developed or were seriously discussing nuclear programs has dropped since the 1980’s. This was due to a combination of factors that still determine such decisions today, including security, expense, need for status or prestige, internal politics and other factors.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I agree with the nuclear optimists that nuclear proliferation will make international politics more stable and less war prone. Since nuclear weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), more specifically as true WMD (Baylis pg 386), I believe states that possess nuclear weapons will be reluctant to use them against states who also possess nuclear weapons, out of the fear those state will retaliate with their own nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons poses risk to a state that chooses to use a nuclear weapon against another nuclear proliferated state. Therefore, by this logic it benefits to a state to be nuclear proliferated as a defensive precaution or a deterrence mechanism.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In this day and age, many may acknowledge the very controversial issue of technology for peace. This subject is so debated because nuclear weapons have the ability to destroy the world as we know it. However, they are essential if we are to protect ourselves. We need to have them, because almost anybody can gain control of them and become a threat. Mutually Assured Destruction insures that both sides need to have weapons of mass destruction to prevent a nuclear war. The use of human soldiers to make peace is too great a risk, and not worth it. With such treacherous weapons as these, it is crucial that we make all the right decisions, but we must also give the world some credit and acknowledge the fact that people have learnt from their mistakes, like what happened in Japan, and nobody wants that to happen again. It is imperative that we have these arms because the technology is already out there and almost anyone can obtain them, Mutually Assured Destruction insures that as long as both sides have them then nobody will strike, and the risk of human casualties is too great and not worth it.…

    • 1791 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Although the Cold War had many negative influences on global society, it also helped to create a stable political world, as evidenced by the fact that during the Cold War era, civil wars, nationalistic uprisings, and ethnic cleansings were almost non-existent. As well, the world economic situation was subsequently greatly improved by the military build-up caused by the Cold War. The implementation of the American "Marshall Plan" and the Communist "Molotov Plan", the nuclear arms race, and the global military build-up all served to create global political stability and economic prosperity.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lettow, Paul Vorbeck. 2010 Strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime. New York Council on forgein Relations. Print…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Millions killed in nuclear disaster, thousands left homeless, countries left in peril! These are some of the many consequences that are faced in a nuclear dependent world. Day after day people live in fear that one tiny mistake, one wrong word can cripple our world and leave the survivors living in rubble. The world has discovered that despite the enormous precautions taken, disasters and destruction still constantly resurface themselves through our short, but eventful nuclear history. During World War II, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Dwight Eisenhower that has shaped mankind from that moment on. It described a weapon that would release enough energy to destroy an entire city("USA weapons of mass destruction." ). Now nearly four score ago the consequences we face for this technology has been detrimental to our society. Scientific discoveries also yielded the idea of using this extraordinary power as an energy source and a extraordinary threat.Due to these undeniable risks, the world needs to remove all sources of nuclear weaponry and power.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Iran's Nuclear Program

    • 1439 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” (Oppenheimer, 1965, 0:47). So said Julius Robert Oppenheimer, one of the men credited with creating the atomic bomb, when describing the first test detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo Bomb Range in New Mexico ( Sublette, 1999), as he quotes the Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Vita. Nuclear weapons have only been used in warfare twice, both times by the United States during World War I, when the United States dropped the ‘Fat Man’ and ‘Little Boy’ bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945 (Sublette, 1999). In the 60 intervening years, a number of other nations have since developed nuclear weapons of their own. Because of nuclear proliferation, and the unparalleled destructive power of atomic weapons, nuclear non-proliferation has become an international concern, with the United States leading the charge. The past decade, however, has seen new nations try to enter the ‘nuclear club’ the most recent country being Iran. A nuclear armed Iran poses many concerns to the United States. In this paper, I will discuss the history of Iran’s nuclear program, what steps have been taken to curb the Iranians efforts, and where the two major political parties of the United States stand on the issue.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Robock Alan and Toon Owen Brian(2010) ‘Local nuclear war, global suffering’, Scientific American, January, pp. 74-81, available at http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSciAmJan2010.pdf…

    • 2181 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nuclear weapons have only ever been used once in human history, and that was during World War II when The United States deployed missiles on Japanese territory, in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. At the time of bombing in 1945 only the USA had developed nuclear weapons, whilst today the pool of states consisting of nuclear weapons is still extremely small, with only nine states laying claim to nuclear technology and weaponry. This nuclear proliferation is explained by Darryl Howlett who explains this as the worldwide spread of nuclear weapons. For Howlett states are nuclear driven because of the ‘strategic, political and prestige benefits’ attached to nuclear weapons[1]. In the modern world the mass media are often critical about nuclear weapons and the threats they pose for society, but this begs the question; why have nuclear weapons not been used in conflict since 1945? To answer this question the issues of taboo and deterrence and the arrival of virtual nuclear arsenals must be called into question, as well as theoretical ideas such as rationality from proliferation optimists and proliferation pessimists. I will also look at whether we currently live in a non-proliferation regime, and look at the alternatives for peace and nuclear non-usage.…

    • 2145 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: “50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons.” Brookings. 1998, Brooking Institution, May 15, 2012 http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/archive/nucweapons/50…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nuclear Arms Race

    • 7055 Words
    • 29 Pages

    This unit deals with Arms Race and the Nuclear Threat in the present day world. After…

    • 7055 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As well as primary sources I also plan on using a variety of secondary sources. This includes a paper prepared for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission in Sweden written by Jim Walsh a lecturer at Harvard University. This source is incredibly reliable as it contains a large amount of references to various materials and provides a good overall view of the treaty as it explores both the successes and failures of the NPT.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays