Nuclear weapons: No Peace Without Them



Nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons are possessed by only a few countries in the world. The official nuclear powers include United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. The unofficial nuclear powers are Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea. Attempts by other nations to join this exclusive nuclear club have been thwarted or denied by the five official nuclear nations. The reasons given for denying other nations the ability to acquire nuclear weapons is that allowing all nations on earth to possess nuclear weapons could make the world uninhabitable.



However, the current case involving the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces tends to suggest that allowing all nations to possess nuclear weapons could make the world a better place rather than make it a dangerous one. Presently there are thousands of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. Russia claims that these troops are there to protect Russian interests. However, Ukraine is a sovereign state and not part of Russia.

If Ukraine had nuclear weapons, Russia cannot stationed its troops inside Ukraine. Ukraine abandon its nuclear weapons after United States, Russia and United Kingdom had agreed to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine in 1994. Russian is breaching this agreement because it knows that Ukraine has given up its nuclear weapons and cannot defend its territory.

The nation of Israel is a clear example of how nuclear weapons can refrain one country from invading another. Before it acquired the deadly weapons, Israel was always attacked by its Arab neighbours. Even the fact that the United States could support Israel in case of war did not deter the Arab nations from waging wars against Israel. However, since it was revealed that Israel has acquired nuclear weapons, Arab countries have not waged wars again against the Jewish state. They know the potential harm that nuclear weapons can cause to a nation and its people.

The acquisition of nuclear weapons by both Pakistan and India is also attributable to the cessation of wars between these two nations. Prior to the acquisition of nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan were always fighting wars between themselves. Following the acquisition of the nuclear weapons, however, these two countries have ceased fighting each other with the exception of border skirmishes. One does not need a soothsayer to state that the factor responsible for this cessation of war between the two neighbours is the nuclear weapons.

Furthermore, the evidence of harm caused to Japan by United States nuclear bombs during the Second World War is a living testimony for any nation that intends to attack a nuclear state. The city of Hiroshima was devastated by the nuclear bombs, and tens of thousands of Japanese were killed. Japan stopped the war and surrounded to the allied forces, thus bringing an end to the Second World War. It is still debated whether Japan could attack the Pearl Harbour in the United States had Japan known about the devastating power of the United States nuclear weapons.

Therefore, the argument that the world is a better place today because nuclear weapons are only in the hands of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and four non-permanent members is flawed. In contrary, the presence of nuclear weapons in every nation regardless of its size could eliminate the threat of invasion and can bring permanent peace to the whole world.