When one looks at the trends of nuclear weapons, it is a very scary idea. Depending on how one views nuclear weapons will influence how the world is perceived in present time. With the massive stockpile of weapons that is in the world, life, as we know it could completely be eliminated.

In general we see the arms race as a necessity to keep the communists in Russia from getting to be to powerful and thus be able to threaten us with them. We needed just as many missiles as they did in order to keep a balance and thus be able to match any threats. However, this has now changed and with more and more countries being able to build and use nuclear devices, this threat is now greater than ever.

It should be noted that we could never marshal the research and development of nuclear weapons. While most nations will sign treaties that state they will stop producing nuclear weapons, places like Iraqi will always be trying to build them.

We can blame the United States and Russia for the trend of nations wanting as many “nukes” as possible. During the Cold War both nations tried to build as many weapons as possible. This was based on the fact that each nation thought that if the other would attack, they would need enough weapons to destroy the other. This was a good policy in terms of warfare.

In terms of world security, this seems to be a good idea. Knowing that if your nation launched missiles on a nuclear state, retaliation would be deadly. One had to decide if they could survive the retaliation attack. Had Japan had nuclear weapons in World War II, Truman would not have sent the nuclear bombs in and ended the war at that time.

With nuclear weapons getting smaller and smaller, the world population needs to be getting more concerned than during the Cold War. Organizations like Bin Laden’s terrorist group or individuals like Tim McVeigh, could obtain a “suitcase” nuclear weapon and detonate it anywhere. Imagine the impact of a nuclear weapon being detonated in Downtown DC.

This may seem like an unlikely event, but the existence of “suitcase” nuclear weapons has been confirmed in Russia and their inventory is short. Consider that these weapons are easier and cheaper to build, it can be imaged that they could be smuggled into the United States and because of their small size, they are harder to detect than a large missile being pulled on a truck.

With world peace in constant danger, the treat of a nuclear weapon being used today is very real. We should all think about that, especially with the recent attack on the USS Cole. Had this been a nuclear weapon the entire ship and crew would have been lost. This proves that something must be done to marshal the use and development of nuclear weapons.

However, in this day it will be extremely difficult to seek and destroy nuclear weapons. UN inspectors can do searches in foreign nations, but if that nation truly wants to develop nuclear weapons, they will find a way around it. It should be noted that we would never be able to eradicate nuclear weapons from the world. But we might be able to limit their usage with the proper retaliatory threats

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