NEW WORLD ORDER – I’VE GOT TO HAVE THE NUKE! PART - 2

                                                   THE LITTLE BOY:

On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear bomb (called Little Boy) was tested in the deserts of New Mexico, an event Truman [president, U.S.] reported to Stalin [of Soviet Union] at Potsdam. Stalin was not surprised. Klaus Fuchs, a Soviet spy at Los Alamos, the center of U.S. weapon research in New Mexico, had been supplying Russia with atomic secrets for years. After his conversation with Truman, Stalin instructed V.M. Molotov, his foreign minister, and Lavrenty Beria, the head of the Soviet atomic program, “to hurry up the work” on the Soviet bomb. In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its own weapon. (Nau, 168)

A race that started up between the U.S. and Germany has now changed course. It’s now between the U.S. and its Second World War ally, the Soviet Union. But hey, hold on a bit! At the end of World War II, Germany was split into East Germany (a province under the control of the Soviet Union) and West Germany (controlled by the U.S.). Nuclear devices had been deployed in to Germany, courtesy Cold War. Under the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Germany agreed not to go into nuclear weapon development, despite its capability to do so. Up to date the Nuclear weapon states in the world include the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China. These are members of what is now called “Nuclear Club.” But I must add here that India, Pakistan and North Korea are known or believed to possess nukes too. These three state are however non-members of the NPT! North Korea was a member until 2003 when it withdrew from the club.

We are now living in a world littered with terror organizations as well as nations that potentially have nuclear weapons but not under any close international nuclear regulatory body. What is worse: these terror organizations are no longer acting as individual groups but are now forming linkages making the entire terror market a kind of international network in itself.

The calculus of fighting nuclear proliferation and most importantly terrorism has definitely changed with the coming into being of nuclear arms.

In the concluding part of this paper we will look at Deterrence Theory and ascertain whether it’s really of any use in today’s world at all.