When one looks at the trends of nuclear weapons, it is a very scary idea. Depending on how one views nuclear weapons will influence how the world is perceived in present time. With the massive stockpile of weapons that is in the world, life, as we know it could completely be eliminated.In general we see the arms race as a necessity to keep the communists in Russia from getting to be to powerful and thus be able to threaten us with them. We needed just as many missiles as they did in order to keep a balance and thus be able to match any threats. However, this has now changed and with more and more countries being able to build and use nuclear devices, this threat is now greater than ever.It should be noted that we could never marshal the research and development of nuclear weapons. While most nations will sign treaties that state they will stop producing nuclear weapons, places like Iraqi will always be trying to build them. We can blame the United States and Russia for the trend of nations wanting as many “nukes” as possible. During the Cold War both nations tried to build as many weapons as possible. This was based on the fact that each nation thought that if the other would attack, they would need enough weapons to destroy the other. This was a good policy in terms of warfare. In terms of world security, this seems to be a good idea. Knowing that if your nation launched missiles on a nuclear state, retaliation would be deadly. One had to decide if they could survive the retaliation attack. Had Japan had nuclear weapons in World War II, Truman would not have sent the nuclear bombs in and ended the war at that time.With nuclear weapons getting smaller and smaller, the world population needs to be getting more concerned than during the Cold War. Organizations like Bin Laden’s terrorist group or individuals like Tim McVeigh, could obtain a “suitcase” nuclear weapon and detonate it anywhere. I...
