{"id":38186,"date":"2025-02-28T18:44:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T13:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=38186"},"modified":"2025-04-02T13:29:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:59:34","slug":"nuclear-weapons-one-way-annihilation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-02-2025\/nuclear-weapons-one-way-annihilation","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear weapons:\u2018One-Way Road to Annihilation\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Internal Security<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned that the risk of nuclear conflict is rising as global security arrangements weaken, urging governments to push for total disarmament.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dangers of nuclear weapons<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The catastrophic consequences<strong> <\/strong>of <strong>nuclear weapons <\/strong>were first witnessed during the bombings of <strong>Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It resulted in over <strong>200,000 deaths<\/strong> and long-term health issues due to radiation exposure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)<\/strong>, demonstrates how close humanity has come to catastrophic outcomes due to misunderstandings and miscalculations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The &#8220;Doomsday Clock,&#8221; <\/strong>a symbolic measure of humanity&#8217;s proximity to catastrophe, was moved one second closer to midnight in <strong>January 2025<\/strong>. It highlights the increasing danger posed by nuclear weapons.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This calls for renewed efforts toward nuclear disarmament to ensure global security and stability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A nuclear war could trigger a <strong>&#8220;nuclear winter,&#8221; <\/strong>where soot and debris block sunlight, disrupting global agriculture and threatening mass starvation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Human error<\/strong>, technical malfunctions, or cyberattacks could trigger unintended nuclear detonations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Nuclear Powers in the World<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are <strong>nine countries<\/strong> recognized as possessing nuclear weapons.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These countries are often referred to as &#8220;<strong>nuclear-armed states&#8221; or &#8220;nuclear powers.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Nuclear Disarmament?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Disarmament refers to the <strong>act of eliminating or abolishing weapons <\/strong>(particularly offensive arms) either unilaterally or reciprocally.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It may refer either to <strong>reducing the number of arms, or to eliminating entire categories of weapons.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Treaties Related to Nuclear Disarmament<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Conference on Disarmament (CD)<\/strong> is the world\u2019s sole multilateral forum for negotiating arms control and disarmament agreements.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Comprising <strong>65 member states,<\/strong> the Conference has played a key role in shaping treaties such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT):<\/strong> Signed in <strong>1968 <\/strong>and entered into<strong> force in 1970,<\/strong> the NPT aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW):<\/strong> Adopted by the United Nations in <strong>2017 <\/strong>the TPNW aims to prohibit the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It represents a significant step towards nuclear disarmament, although it has not been signed by nuclear-armed states.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): <\/strong>Opened for signature in <strong>1996<\/strong>, the CTBT aims to ban all nuclear explosions for both civilian and military purposes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While the treaty has been signed by <strong>185 <\/strong>countries and ratified by <strong>170<\/strong>, it has not entered into force as nuclear-armed states must ratify it to become operational.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Outer Space Treaty: <\/strong>This multilateral agreement entered into force in <strong>1967<\/strong> and bans the siting of weapons of mass destruction in space.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>All nine states believed to have nuclear weapons are parties to this treaty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>India\u2019s stance on nuclear disarmament<\/strong><br>&#8211; India is<strong> not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)<\/strong>, and stated that the NPT is discriminatory and perpetuates a two-tiered system of<strong> nuclear haves and have-nots<\/strong> by unfairly restricting access to peaceful nuclear technology for non-nuclear weapon states.<br>&#8211; <strong>National Security:<\/strong> India&#8217;s nuclear weapons programme is a legitimate expression of its national sovereignty, and that India has the right to defend itself against potential threats.&nbsp;<br>1. India adopted a <strong>No First Use (NFU) policy in 1998 <\/strong>after its nuclear tests.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Disarmament is seen as a crucial step towards reducing the risks and promoting international peace and stability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While achieving complete Disarmament may be a long-term objective, incremental progress can still be made through concerted international efforts and cooperation.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2025\/02\/1160441\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>UN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned that the risk of nuclear conflict is rising as global security arrangements weaken, urging governments to push for total disarmament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40193,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38186\/revisions\/40193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}