Today we live in a post cold war era where the threat of the use of nuclear weapons is no longer as prevalent as it were during the Cold War. After almost two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States retains its Cold War sentiment and strategic nuclear policies. Such policies pose grave problems in the pursuit of stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The United States has maintained its Cold War strategic military strategy, making deterrence the forefront of its nuclear policies. In an ever-changing post cold war world, this policy and strategy has backfired due to the lack of an opposing world super power. Nations view the United States, the only remaining super power to emerge from the Cold War, as a nation that due to its power, take it upon itself to force its views and beliefs and way of thinking upon the world, much like the Soviet Union did during the Cold War. With every military action that is taken, the world views them as an act of “classic American imperialism”.
Many nations view the unchecked, unrestricted power of the United States as a threat to their own national security and well-being. Other nations view America’s power as a pretext to build up arms, stating that if American can have as many weapons as it does and be as powerful as it is, then all other nations are justified to have equal or greater power so as to tip the balance of power in their favor.
One classic example of a nation that uses the United States’ policies of nuclear deterrence as a pretext to build its own nuclear weapons is North Korea. North Korea, for years, deceived the United States and the world by signing an agreement in 1991 stating that it would cease its nuclear weapons development program in exchange for goods for its citizens from the US. North Korea had no such intention to truthfully honor that agreement and continued to pursue its illegal research. When it was discovered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that North Korea was not adhering to the agreement in 1995, it finally admitted that it had been producing weapons-grade uranium for use in nuclear weapons research.
They even took it a step further a few years later in saying that it possessed at least one nuclear weapon. Years later, after the discovery of North Koreas active nuclear program, it began production of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). This new missile was named the Taep’o Dong-2 ICBM. Its predicted range is 12,000 km. It has the capability to hit the United States, west-coast direct and was predicted to be able to strike as far as Washington D.C. On October 6, 2006, North Korea detonated an underground nuclear device, further destabilizing the global balance of power and global peace as it issued threats of war against Japan and the United States.
A second problem that proliferation of nuclear weapons creates for deterrence is that rogue nations, who proliferate nuclear weapons, have the capability to provide such technology and materials needed to produce nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations. The biggest threat would come from the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization because of its size and sheer complex make-up, and its ability to conduct terrorist operations virtually anywhere in the world.
Nuclear deterrence is a good strategy today against nations who already have nuclear weapons as it gives aggressive nations willing to use the bomb a moment of pause before making the decision to wage all-out nuclear war, however, militarily aggressive nations who wish to develop nuclear weapons can justify the proliferation of such weapons by stating that if other nations are allowed to keep an inventory of nuclear weapons whose existence poses a threat to the national defense of their nation, are inherently justified to do everything within its power to counter all external threats and protect its citizens as it is the nations sovereign right to do so.
It is the responsibility of the international community to do all in its power to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to discuss ways of eliminating such weapons-leading to the decreased need for nuclear deterrence and creating a more personal and less dangerous world. If we as a civilized race fail to do so, we do so at our own peril.
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