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The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

1007 Words5 Pages

1991, the Cold War has ended without the exchange of ICBM’s and nuclear holocaust that would have followed despite heightened tensions between the USSR and the USA over a span of 45 years. Within the same year the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty 1 was signed successfully reduced most of the nuclear stockpiles that America and Russia possessed over a period of 15 years. This significantly marked a the end of vertical proliferation between these two superpowers, however the concerns of vertical proliferation shifted to horizontal proliferation with states such as Iran and North Korea developing their own nuclear programmes, therefore, threatening global peace once again. Nuclear Weapons support international peace due to the dangers of being …show more content…

The idea of assured destruction was first introduced by Robert McNamara’s speech to the American Bar Foundation in 1967, which demonstrated how in the event of a nuclear strike, America should possess a “credible assured-destruction capability,” which guarantees “certainty of suicide to the aggressor,” therefore, preventing attacks from happening in the first place . Moreover this strategy demonstrated the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, as just one strike damaging enough to cause widespread suffering, therefore, making it highly undesirable to provoke nuclear capable nations, which can explain why nuclear weapons support peace, albeit a negative one. In addition the USSR during the Cold War, outlined by John A. Battilega (2004, p.160) was also reluctant to utilise nuclear weapons as Soviet strategists “considered their nuclear power the only guarantee of security from war, and they never examined the question of mutually assured destruction as a condition that they should accept, much less pursue .” From this we can evaluate that during the Cold War in relation to the example of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 that both America and the USSR respected the deterrent of nuclear weapons and, therefore, avoided direct conflict leading to a peaceful outcome despite heightened tensions. This demonstrates how nuclear weapons are capable of being instruments of negotiation and

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In this book, Waltz present his neorealist arguments that nuclear weapon will enhance global stability and prevent war cause the more state that possess nuclear weapon will make the world more safer. In this issue, Waltz take a Cold War as an example to show how fear of mutual assured destruction (MAD) reduced conflict between United State and Soviet Union. In the past third of a century, conflict

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The atrocities during the war (the Holocaust and atomic bombings) precipitated a worldwide dialogue concerning international cooperation and safeguarding human rights. Subsequently, one pivotal solution emerged in 1945 by establishing the United Nations to prevent future wars while engendering concordance amongst states. These events highlighted that nuclear weaponry's destructive capability significantly influenced views on arms control policies, compelling public advocacy for disarming efforts (Dower par. 17). The bombings also acted as a caution against the likelihood of disastrous destruction in the event of future confrontations. They aided in encouraging international efforts to inhibit the dispersion of nuclear weapons.

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The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

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Despite the fact that the Cold War has been over since the early 1990’s with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the topic of nuclear weapon development is still circulating. The issue as a whole is a very complex issue, containing too many intertwined conflicts and and loose ends, so therefore it cannot be clearly defined, creating a problem on finding a clear and clean cut solution. But there are ways America can protect itself while as our nation wrestles with the problem as it rears it’s head within foreign relations. “Nuclear reductions and the heady dreams of abolition are driven in part by a belief that nukes are Cold War anachronisms. But it would be incorrect- dangerous, in fact-to assume that the conditions that have allowed the United States to de-emphasize its atomic arsenal will persist.

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On one end, this idea of mutually assured destruction must be considered. When two opponents compete for world domination in the field of nuclear weaponry, the repeated back and forth attacks guarantee the annihilation of both sides. During World War II, atomic weaponry remained in its infancy. In today’s world, the potential of atomic weaponry is exponential, with weapons thousands times more powerful than those of World War II, making the threat of death seem even more imminent. It is easy to say, “Nuclear weapons must be stopped”.

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In the contemporary political landscape, one of the most heavily discussed sociopolitical issues is international nuclear proliferation. From the rising nuclear threat in North Korea to the aggrandizement of potential terroristic threats, international relations specialists have long pondered how the fear perpetuated by the spread of nuclear weapons can be alleviated. As one can likely infer being that nuclear proliferation has not ceased, the conclusion to this dilemma cannot be met without serious contemplation. Being that different specialists operate under the pretenses of different international relations theories, there are a plethora of perspectives from which one could theorize about the two most paramount dilemmas when it comes to

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