Best Answer
One of the most interesting issues in international relations is the role that nuclear weapons play in the effort to obtain peace. Many people suggest that nuclear weapons can preserve peace. The United States was the first country to actively deploy nuclear weapons in an effort to shorten a war by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The widespread destruction, which was unlike anything ever experienced in a war up to that point, is often credited with ushering in the end of World War II, at least in the Pacific theater. The knowledge that the United States, very quickly followed by the Soviet Union, had these weapons is also believed to have been a deterrent to future global conflicts because of the fear of global destruction.
In fact, while countries like the United States, which have had nuclear weapons for almost a century, may have been advocating for nuclear nonproliferation, adding nuclear weapons to their arsenal, and even flexing military might by testing those weapons in ways demonstrated to show them off to potential enemies, has been very important to developing countries. This is especially true when countries have had a history of strife with their neighbors, such as in the case of Pakistan and India.
Despite the belief that nuclear weapons will prevent wars, the reality is that there have been plenty of wars since the advent of nuclear weapons. What really seems to have changed is where the wars have been fought. Instead of the United States and the Soviet Union fighting on either of their own countries’ soil, they fought a number of proxy wars throughout Asia and the Middle East. Should this count as preserving peace? Is the soldier’s duty only to protect citizens or is it to protect all civilians? Those are the questions we would focus on if tackling a paper like yours.
