THE worry today, in a world continually ravaged by conflicts and wars is not the use of small-caliber arms and other relatively sophisticated and unsophisticated weapon but the threat of weapons with the capacity and capability to annihilate, wipe out and destroy completely villages, large communities, metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities and invariably whole nations.
MAJOR advances in science and technology have changed the manner, methods, designs and strategies of modern warfare compared to a world of 100 years ago. While the competition between the East and West intensified in the heydays of the collapsed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (USSR), representing the glory of the East, and the United States, the symbol of resilient West, the collapse of the U.S.S.R. gave growing confidence that the arms race will soon witness a slow down.
THE collapse of the U.S.S.R left open a single power block in the world as represented by the United States which is nicknamed the “policeman” of the world.
THIS becomes the basis of the belief that we are in an era of security and peace where the world would not experience the devastation of nations and annihilation of world communities by power hungry nations.
CONSEQUENTLY, the current posturing of Russia against the rest of the world is disturbing. The recent shooting down of a Malaysian plane with 298 passengers on board is condemnable.
THIS perhaps forms the background in the fight against nuclear acquisitions by some nations and the stance by the United States that world peace currently being experienced would be shattered by nations who thirst for wars on the basis of their new found strength.
RECENT searchlight appears to suggest that Iran, a close neighbour of Iraq is perhaps engaged in the acquisition of nuclear technology but investigations are yet to completely ascertain the correctness in the affirmative.
THE quest by North Korea perhaps may lead to the conclusion that nations have not entirely jettisoned the idea to abandon the development of weapons of mass destruction and therefore a clear signal that probably world peace may one day come under very serious threat that the United Nations was set up to preserve,
FOR instance, the Gulf war of 1991 was a pointer that world peace was still under threat and despite the invasion of Iraq and the enthronement of a new order, more worries emerge everyday.
THE question that becomes inevitable is what posture should the comity of nations take to stop the production or building of weapons of mass destruction?
WHILE small-arms can be tolerable, nuclear weapons are not. The incidence of World War II where atomic bombs were dropped in two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. should be important lessons for the world to learn that nuclear weapons are dangerous to mankind. The Japanese have come to recognize this fact and could invariably hold the view of the nuclear deterrence school of thought as amplified by Swedish Industrialist, Alfred Nobel and inventor of dynamite who held the position that the destructive power of nuclear armaments was so immense as to render future warfare unthinkable.
THE dropping of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, heralded the beginning of the nuclear age, with huge quantities of resources devoted to developing, building and maintaining nuclear arsenal weapons built throughout human history combined.
IN the face of the quest to acquire nuclear technology, though some nations claim for domestic reasons, and since nations are not deterred by its devastating effects, concerted effort by countries of the world will become inevitable to halt the zeal to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
THE government of the United States, though acting in good faith in its drive to halt the acquisition of these destructive weapons, should seriously work in collaboration with the United Nations in this task.
WE are suggesting that the bond of partnership between the U.S. and UN in tracking down nations acquiring nuclear arsenals should be stronger than it is currently and working together in unison is needed to score success in this regard.
WE are further suggesting that the campaign to halt the acquisition of nuclear weapons should be a task that should also be assigned to the Security Council of the U.N. with its five permanent members of France, U.K. Russia, U.S. and China all playing significant roles to checkmate the threat to world peace.
WITH expansion already being contemplated in the Security Council, the need for world peace and security is becoming more imperative and it is significant that the UN exercises all powers backed by the Security Council to ensure a safe world for all humanity.
THEREFORE, Russia and indeed, all nations should be brought under some treaties and conventions prohibiting the use, manufacture or spread of nuclear arsenals or weapons of mass destruction, because the world is still under threat and in present danger of these weapons which could one day, from the anger of an insane leader, be unleashed on the world.