‘Nuclear weapons don’t help deter war’

As 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, is going to be held on March 26-27, with participation of heads of state and different organizations of over 53 countries, to discuss international cooperative measures to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism, protection of nuclear materials and related facilities and prevention of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, the people around the globe, who are very much concerned about security of humans threatened by nuclear arms race, see it as a ray of hope because the summit might prove a success in achieving the goal and steer the nations out of the fear of catastrophe. 

The world has already suffered a lot due to nuclear arms. The peace-loving people of the world have not yet forgotten the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that took place more than six decades back on August 06 and 09, 1945 that killed over 210, 000 people. And later, all these decades the sword continued hanging over the globe as the world powers developed nuclear arsenals on the pretext of ‘deterrence’ during the Cold War era. Although, the Cold War ended more than two decades back, the US and Russia alone are still said to have over 20, 000 nuclear warheads with no results of negotiations on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). In the meantime, many more countries became nuclear powers like UK, France, China, North Korea, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iran and some other nations draining all their resources from other productive uses. 

Now, in the wake of new wave of terrorism across the globe using most modern technology as a weapon, even the nuclear powers are worried over the threat of probable nuclear terrorism. Their worries reflect the fact that over the last many decades, the illegal trafficking of nuclear material had been taking place. I would not discuss how all that had been happening, but I would hold responsible those powers for pushing the world to such a dangerous situation, who initiated the nuclear program first. Producing the nuclear weapons was a blunder committed by them on the pretext of ‘preventing the wars’. That concept was totally wrong as the world had witnessed several wars during six decades despite possessing huge nuclear arsenals by the big powers. 

Today it is feared that a tiny friction of operational nuclear device if detonated would generate enough smoke to cause catastrophic disruption of the global climate and massive destruction of the productive Stratospheric-Zone Layer. Similarly, the environmental devastation caused by a war fought with strategic nuclear weapons would quickly leave the Earth uninhabitable. 

In view of such a threat, it is must for the all the nations of the world to join hands and devise strategy to prevent such mass destructions. It would be better to get rid of all nuclear weapons, but since the existing powers have no intention of getting rid of it, even if some do agree, and others will continue working on getting the ‘deterrent’ overtly or covertly, at least efforts could be made to curb the proliferation, halt illegal trafficking and ensure safety of nuclear material so that the technology and nuclear material do not transfer to the enemies of humanity. 

Besides, the priority should also be given to preventing wars and defusing war-like situations by global peace efforts and mobilization, as change of mind is must to avert wars because it is the man not the weapons that makes the war.  

I would end my note with a quote of an American author Colin S. Gray from his book ‘Weapons Don’t Make War’, published in early nineties:  “It has often been said of hospitals that even if they cannot cure patients, at the very least they should be required not to spread disease. By analogy, the same admonition should apply to the arms control process. If arms control cannot cure what is popularly viewed as the ‘disorder’ of arms race, at least it should not make that condition worse.