Solution to Nuclear Weapons essays

Solution to Nuclear Weapons essays Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction which, if used, would kill indiscriminately. Nevertheless, those who posses nuclear weapons state claim that nuclear weapons are able to deter nuclear or conventional attack by threatening disastrous retaliation. This policy is called nuclear deterrence. To base a country's national security on the threat to murder millions of innocents is an ethical issue of global proportion. Nuclear deterrence is the threat to retaliate with nuclear weapons. In general, deterrence refers to the attempt to create risks that lead the opponent to not engage in a certain policy or action. Can nuclear deterrence succeed? For it to succeed, a threatening nation has to be capable and willing to use its nuclear weapons and must effectively communicate this to the nation that is to be deterred. For this communication to be successful, the threatening nation must be capable of two things. First, the threatening nation must be able to inflict unacceptable damage to the inferior nation. Second, the threatening nation must have the plans and the readiness necessary to demonstrate that it can deliver on its "message." Conveying willingness to use retaliatory nuclear forces creates a dilemma: The threatening nation must show willingness to engage in a war it tries to deter or prevent. The components of nuclear deterrence have a physical and a psychological character. On the physical level, deterrence requires a series of military instruments, sufficient to threaten the opponent in a way that it would not even think of attacking. Successful deterrence is guaranteed, however, only if the will is there to use these weapons. Deterrence is credible only if a nation is able to successfully convey the two points to its opponent, that it is capable and willing. In other words, successful deterrence depends on psychological components: communication and perception. How can one prove that nuclear deterrence works? S...