Sarov
Nizhni Novgorod Region
Gymnazia №
2
Nuclear Disarmament:
Challenges, Opportunities and
Next Steps
Students:
Teacher:
Denis Kalyapin Alexandra Krasina
Georgy Tolushkin
Irina Naidanova
Ivan Laptev
Alexander Ovsepyan
Kristina Smirnova
Mikhail Fomin
Kseniya Shyrokova
Anna Klitina
Alexey Leonov
Grade 10
2009
Benchmark
III – Drawing Conclusions
Contents
I. Introduction
My tasks in this work are:
¥ the history of the creation and spread
of NW and
¥ the attempts to stop the spread of NW (international
organizations and treaties)
2.
to show the reasons for
keeping NW as an essential part of national security highlighting
¥ challenges
related to nuclear weapons,
¥ the inevitability of invention
of nuclear weapons,
¥ the importance of the vast
territory and extended boundary, and
¥ the necessity for Russia to
keep world power position
II. Synthesis of the main information on NW
1. History of creation and spread of NW
You know, nuclear weapons are weapons
of mass destruction; their use in a war is disastrous for all mankind and the
planet itself. Nuclear weapons are weapons of great
power in comparison with conventional weapons.
The history of the creation of NW can't be separated from the history of
nuclear physics. At the edge between the 19th and 20th
centuries, the discovery of radioactivity by French physicists Pierre Curie and
his Polish wife Maria Sklodowska-Curie in 1898 and
the discovery by Ernest Rutherford in 1911 that the nucleus of an atom is made
up of protons surrounded by whirring electrons cleared the way for other
physicists to make even more prominent discoveries. After the discovery of the
process of nuclear dission and later nuclear fusion,
it became evident that he mankind gained energy of such power that could not
only devastate cities and towns but also destroy the Earth as a planet. Among
the countries paying special attention to the research in this sphere were
England, France, Germany and Russia.
During World War II, when the democratic world including the Soviet
Union, the United States, Great Britain and France fought against the fascist
Germany, the enemy states toiled to create nuclear weapons which were many
times more powerful than ordinary weapons. The US was the first to succeed and
after they had bombarded Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atom bombs, the whole
world could witness how dangerous and destructive these weapons were. A lot of
people started to enforce a ban against the creation of nuclear weapons or at
least to stop their proliferation as the danger of nuclear war and the
possession of NW became apparent to everybody.
After the end of World War
II, the winner countries wanted to keep dominating positions in the world
policy and economics and NW was the best ÒargumentÓ in this competition. So,
the nuclear arms race began. The United States tested its first hydrogen bomb
in 1952. The Soviet Union conducted its first tests in 1949 (A-bomb) and in
1953 (H-bomb).
The US wasnÕt inclined to share the results of its NW research program
with its former European allies. ThatÕs why the UK and France developed their
own programs to acquire NW. Their main motivation was Òto have an independent
deterrent against the USSRÓ as well as Òto retain great power statusÓ. (31) The UK tested its
bomb which was drawn to a great extent on the information gained by the British
physicists while working on the Manhattan Project during the war. As for
France, its nuclear bomb based on its own research was tested in 1969.
Another
great developing state, China, wanted to have a deterrent against both the
United Stated and the USSR and in 1964 (due to the previous scientific and
technological assistance from the Soviet Union), it also tested a nuclear bomb.
The
spread of NW was becoming more and more threatening.
Some
developing countries also wanted to acquire NW not as a deterrent against their
enemies maintaining their national security as well as to become great regional
powers.
Thus,
India and Pakistan tested their nuclear bombs in 1974 and 1998. And North Korea
tested its bomb in 2006. (Though most specialists agree that the test was only
partially successful with the yield less than a kiloton).
Still
more countries havenÕt announced their tests but are suspected of either
possessing NW or developing NW programs. These are Israel, Iran and Syria.
2. Attempts to stop spread of NW
Soon after the creation of the first nuclear bomb, both scientists and
politicians realized how dangerous it could be and started working out measures
to put an end to NW proliferation. During the second half of the 20th century, a series of
international treaties were agreed and even entered into force as well as some
international organizations to control nuclear materials and activities were
established (among them the United Nations with its Security Council and the
International Atomic Energy Agency).
As for the
international treaties, there are a lot of them dealing with disarmament,
test ban, nuclear free zones and others.
The most important of them is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
It was opened for signature on July 1, 1968. There are
currently 189 countries
party to the treaty. Five states are recognized by the NPT as nuclear
weapon states (NWS). These are the United States,
the United Kingdom,
France,
Russia,
and the People's Republic of China .All of them
are the permanent members of the UN Security Council. The aims of the treaty
are to limit the spread of nuclear weapons; to lesson the quantity of NW,
to monitor their stockpiles and to create someday the conditions for a halt to
the production of nuclear weapons; plus to make it possible for NNWS to apply
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
However, the spread of NW canÕt be stopped so far.
III. Keeping nuclear weapons as an
essential part of national security
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellumÉ
1. Challenges related to nuclear weapons
The
nuclear powers and those alleged to be possess such a lot of nuclear arsenals
that they could be enough to destroy our planet several times. Though the
period of the Cold War is over and the former enemies donÕt threaten to apply
the nuclear weapons to gain political goals, itÕs still extremely dangerous to
go on preserving them. So, the mankind arouses the question of what to do with
all these arsenals. Political and public leaders are nowadays discussing the
challenges related to nuclear weapons: the elimination of NW, the reliance on
Arms Control and keeping nuclear weapons for national security. In our opinion,
the third option is the most reasonable.
2. Inevitability of invention of nuclear weapons
First,
total reduction of nuclear weapons for ever doesnÕt seem achievable. The
process of thinking canÕt be stopped. Even if we eliminated all the present day
nuclear weapons and all the documents showing how to produce them, someone
would invent again how to use the gigantic power of atomic energy. It might be
done in another, even simpler way, but we know for sure that some day it would
happen. Who knows what kind of people will do it in the future. This enormous
power can appear in the hands of radical politicians or terrorists who would
like to achieve their ambitions with its help. If they start threatening our
national independence and security, weÕll be helpless unless we have equal
deterrence.
3. Vast territory and extended boundary
Then, as far as our country
is concerned, itÕs spread over vast territories and has an extremely long
boundary which can hardly be protected with the help of conventional weapons at
its whole length at a time. No country possesses such huge finances and such a
big army. The threat of aggression is quite real as our nearest neighbours are countries with rapidly growing population,
such as China and India. They need spare lands for their people to settle and
if some day theyÕd decide attack this country in order to conquer the
territories of Russia, especially its eastern part, for these purposes, we need
to have something really ÒconvincingÓ to deter them.
4. Means to keep world power position
Another
reason, nuclear weapons enable Russia to have a position of a respected world
power and secure its independence against all risks, which is really important
in the periods of economic crises and political instability in the world.
IV. Conclusion
To
sum up, after nuclear weapons were created and spread over the world, the
mankind has to take their existence and destructive power into account while
building international relationships and making global decisions. There are
numerous arguments for complete elimination of NW stockpiles. At the same time,
a great many sensible politicians believe that mere possession of nuclear
arsenals is enough to ensure deterrence. So, nuclear weapons could be
considered as a perfect means of increasing international stability. WhatÕs
more, nuclear weapons promote caution in political leaders and decision-makers.
And as we have tried to prove above, NW should be kept as an essential part of
national security.
However,
we clearly realize that ownership of nuclear arsenals makes Russia and other
nuclear powers responsible for reasonable foreign and home policy, peaceful
goals and all-round assistance to other peoples and nations. We are also
convinced that keeping nuclear weapons must be inseparably connected with all-round
international arms control, regulated monitoring and verification.
V. Reference materials
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_proliferation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/infcirc140.pdf
http://www.un.org/disarmament/disarmsec/index.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_disarmament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_testing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons