Mon. Oct 7th, 2024
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Stockholm International Peace Research (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank, in its annual report published on Monday, said that the global stockpile of nuclear weapons is expected to rise in the coming years for the first time since the Cold War.

According to the report, there are indications that the process of the decline of the nuclear arsenal has stalled. From the estimates of SIPRI, at the beginning of the year 2021, the nine nuclear armed states—USA, UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—together have 13,080 nuclear weapons.

This number decreased from the 13,400 nuclear weapons estimated by SIPRI at the beginning of the year 2020. However, the fundamental reason for the reduction of these weapons is the dismantling of the discarded warheads.

Nuclear Arms Race- a feature of the Cold War

The nuclear arms race was one of the most alarming features of the cold war – the competition between the two most powerful states of the time – United States of America and the Soviet Union.

In 1957, the world’s first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was conducted by the Soviet Union and the first man-made satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched into orbit. Thereafter, in 1958, the USA created NASA, thus tracing the alarming competition.

In 1962, the world witnessed the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tensions during the Cold War were on the brink of escalating to nuclear warfare. After a thirteen-day standoff, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its missiles. In return, the United States publicly pledged not to invade Cuba and agreed to withdraw nuclear missiles from Turkey.

This was followed by a number of treaties, which reflect the dangers of nuclear arsenals as a global concern, like-

  • Under the 1962 Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom agreed to ban nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, under water, and outer space and to restrict underground nuclear testing. It is worth noting, however, that neither the fourth nor fifth nuclear power in the world—France nor China—were parties to this treaty.
  • In the 1968 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), after a great debate and discussion in the United Nations, the first three nuclear powers agreed to pursue general disarmament. France and China did not join until 1992.

What makes it worrisome?

Dan Smith, Director of SIPRI said, “although there were some significant gains in both nuclear arms control and nuclear disarmament in the past years, the risk of nuclear weapons being used seems higher now than at any time since the height of the Cold War.”

Furthermore, the Director of SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, Wilfred Wan said, “all of the nuclear-armed states are increasing or upgrading their arsenals and most are sharpening nuclear rhetoric and the role nuclear weapons play in the military strategies.” “This is a very worrisome trend.”

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