Subsections: Arms Control — Case Studies — How It Affects You — Terrorism
Many politicians and diplomats believe that weapons of mass destruction in the modern world can serve a positive role. Countries with WMDs can deter other nations from aggressive warfare (including the use of their own WMDs). The US and other nations persisted in developing biological and chemical weapons after WWI, but did not use such weapons during World War II. Historians say that nations refrained from using chemical weapons during WWII because they did not want to risk retaliation with the same class of weapons.
This theory of deterrence played a large role in the Cold War (1946-1991) between the United States and the Soviet Union. By the late 1950s, both nations possessed enough bombs to obliterate the other many times over. Despite high tensions, war did not break out because leaders of both nations knew that nuclear retaliation and destruction of their homeland would follow after an attack on the other.
This theory has become known by experts as mutually assured destruction. Some have argued that a similar balance has prevented additional warfare between the rival nations of India and Pakistan.
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) - the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, up to 80,000 tactical nuclear weapons fell into the hands of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) republics. In the midst of the political shuffle, many weapons were lost. Even some nuclear bombs stored today in Russia are not secured well.
...there could be 40,000 nuclear weapons, or maybe 80,000 in the former Soviet Union, poorly controlled and poorly stored, and...the world is not in a near-state of hysteria about the danger.
Howard Baker
US Ambassador to Japan
Former Senate Majority Leader, 1977-1985
Chief of Staff to President Reagan, 1987-1988
A Soviet tactical nuclear weapon is mentioned to yield a maximum of two kilotons, enough to destroy much of New York City or Washington D.C. However, Soviet tactical nuclear weapons have a relatively short service life and require regular maintenance and a permissive action link (PAL) to operate. The weapon would require constant maintainance to prolong its destructive capabilities, and also SPETSNAZ personnel to detonate it.
"The first and most important thing is to secure highly enriched uranium stocks around the world...We need to consolidate that highly enriched uranium and put it under secure guard, hopefully under international guard...If a terrorist wanted to get a nuclear weapon, the easiest way to get it would be to get some of this highly enriched uranium..." - listen
Reverend Robert Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
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Because weapons of mass destruction raise serious moral and practical issues, they have long been the focus of international treaties and agreements aimed to control their possession, development, and use. The international community and the United Nations have done much in the past six decades to deter another catastrophic nuclear atrocity. Find out more about the various arms control treaties that comprise international law on Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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Since the issues associated with Weapons of Mass Destruction are of a global nature, we have compiled extensive case studies on "hot" areas around the world relating to WMD. We have also researched the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a Nobel Prize-winning Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to show how non-governmental players may affect the globe.
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In addition to the deadly blast and heat effects of the primary detonation, nuclear bombs result in deadly gamma rays and other radiation. Exposure to intense radiation causes sickness and death in humans, especially in the form of cancer.
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Nowadays, the fear arises not from the potential deployment of a nuclear bomb by another nation, but by non-governmental terrorists groups. The importance of conflict between states has declined, and the role of nonstate actors, especially transnational terrorist organizations, has grown in the 21st century. For many citizens of the United States, the fear of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union has been replaced by the nightmare of a terrorist attack involving biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons. Terrorist groups do not participate or sign international treaties and are not bound by international law. Many groups also utilize suicide tactics, which renders many traditional forms of arms control obselete.