Nuclear Deterrence: The Silent Sentinel
What is Nuclear Deterrence?
Nuclear Deterrence is the idea that the presence of nuclear weapons in the world acts as a deterrent against conventional warfare. "Nuclear weapons will have succeeded in their purpose if they are never used." -John Polanyi |
Why do we need Nuclear Deterrence?
The urge to wage war is a basic and primal urge that is deeply enshrined in human nature. It is a reminder that underneath our intelligence we are still animals with the same basic instincts and urges. Nuclear Deterrence serves to help humanity resist the urge to wage war by taking away the profitability and feasibility of war through the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. |
Nuclear Deterrence in Action: The Cold War
The Cold War was the greatest example of Nuclear Deterrence in effect. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R., two powers of equal, massive strength carrying an intense mutual hatred of each other, stood with guns locked and loaded for nearly fifty years. And yet despite the tense situation and tangible hostility, war never broke out between the two superpowers. These two prideful nations were reduced to engaging in small scale proxy wars because they knew they could not fight directly out of fear of Nuclear Retaliation. It has been 69 years since the end of World War II, and yet World War III has not happened. It only took 24 years after the first World War for the second to break out, despite universal cries to end war forever. World War III did not come to pass because people are unwilling to risk losing their lives to a nuclear war even for the reward of defeating their enemy . However, there will always be someone who is not on board with the idea of peace, and without adequate deterrence to force the world into peace, that person is free to use war to satiate their ambition.
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Nuclear Deterrence in Today's World
As of 2014, eight nations are officially recognized as possessing nuclear weapons: The United States, The Russian Federation, The United Kingdom, France, China, India, and Pakistan, and North Korea. Additionally, Israel is widely believed to also possess nuclear weapons, though they have long had the official policy of neither affirming or denying the existence of such weapons. Now that the political landscape is not as perfectly polar as it was in the Cold War, which is the perfect scenario for Nuclear Deterrence, nuclear weapons are now no longer a perfect, fix all solution to ending war. However, they are not ineffective either. Deterrence requires more strict and careful maintenance to remain effective today, but remain effective it has. It is unfathomable today that Europe could spontaneously erupt into full-scale conventional warfare at some point in the foreseeable future because of the level of peace we exist in today. That peace is a product of Nuclear Deterrence.
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The Pros and Cons of Nuclear Deterrence
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