Nuclear Weapons: a threat to world peace

Hannah Arendt, a German American philosopher said, “Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival.”

Heartiest greetings and a very warm morning to the jury members and everyone gathered here. Today,
I'm here to speak against the motion “Nuclear Weapons: a threat to world peace.”

Pray, lend me your ears for a few minutes. You are sure to realize how important in today’s world
nuclear weapons are in ensuring world peace.

To begin with, we may take a trip down memory lane, to the cataclysmic events of World War II. No
doubt, it ended with the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The
destruction, the two bombs caused, in a rather small part of the world was unprecedented.

But, it brought a decisive end to a major world conflict that was refusing to die down, with Japan having
no intentions of backing off. The human cost was, indeed, horrific. The horrors of suffering caused to
generations of those affected by the immediate and long-term effects of the bombs held valuable and
sobering lessons to humanity as to the dangers of a war in modern times getting out of hand.

No wonder, statistically and historically, since the second world war nuclear weapons have acted as
deterrents and have been able to limit warfare to small proxy conflicts.

This is as easy to see as sunshine on a cloudless morning.

Since 1945, there have not been any conflicts on that scales that emerged during 1914 to 1945. Why?
Because, we as sensible citizens have realized that we don’t want to face sudden extinction. just as the
dinosaurs did 66 million years ago.

We have also seen this ‘understanding’ playing out in the recent Indo-Pak escalations, over India’s
retaliatory air-strikes at the terror-camp at Balakot over bombing of the unsuspecting CRPF convoy at
Pulwama.
Quite unlike India, Pakistan has always proclaimed that it does not subscribe to the policy of ‘no first
use’. Yet, when it came to the crunch, despite all the sabre rattling, Pakistan’s bluff was called when it
chose a mere symbolic air foray in the Indian air space. Needless to emphasize, nuclear deterrence was
at play on both sides.

Concerns have been expressed time and again about nuclear weapons falling into wrong hands and
some madman in a moment of frenzy starting a holocaust.

The fact, however, remains that nuclear powers are responsible nations. The weapons are protected
through layers of security augmented by well defined systems of command and control. As such fears of
nuclear combat, on the orders of a madman, are unfounded.

There is another reason why nuclear weapons are not likely to be used by an aggressor, looking for the
advantage of initial strike. Today’s nuclear weapons have become far more lethal. It is well known that a
nuclear war would end up hurting the nations that use these weapons.

Let’s visualize a nuclear war scenario between India and Pakistan. Pakistan will obliterated from the face
of the earth. And, major Indian cities will be destroyed. But, that is not all. it will take only about two
weeks for the poisonous smoke to cover the entire Earth. The smoke would rise to altitudes between 20
and 50 miles above the earth’s surface. These are areas, where rain clouds never reach. Thus, the smoke
would remain there for years, causing immense damage to earth’s biosphere.

Obviously, if a nuclear war breaks out in any part of the world, there would be no winners. Entire human
race would be the loser. Hence, nuclear weapons, by their presence have enhanced a sense of
responsibility on the part of the major powers who see nuclear capability as deterrence rather than
some sort of superiority that would allow them to be arrogant and fool hardy. No wonder, responsible
powers are investing resources in ensuring that nuclear capability is restricted and does not fall into
irresponsible hands.

Therefore, it has to be concluded that nuclear weapons, though ugly manifestations of destructive
aspect of science and technology, have served to act as a balancing phenomena, forcing nations to find
conflict resolution through limited action, if diplomacy and dialogue were to fail.
The world works on the principle of peace through strength which means that the power of weapons is
a necessary component of security and peaceful coexistence. Nuclear Weapons guarantee a tense but
stable world.

A world without nuclear weapons may be a dream but you cannot base a sure defence on dreams.
Without far greater trusts between East and West than exists at present, a world without nuclear
weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.