Lasting Effects of Nuclear Arms Race and Cold War Essay

The cold war and the armed race have been regarded as one of the insecurity problem in the world of today. Cold war can be regarded as the state which involved the conflict, fear and competition between the allies of the United States of America and the Soviet Union with other counties which were allied. This cold war was felt in the period between the years of 1940s and the 1990s. At this period the war was fought by the use of the propagandas, military advancements, technological advancements and the weapon development which is generally referred as the arms race. During this period there was a lot of the defense spending by the member countries involved, many wars and the development of the hatred between the countries which were involved. This war was characterized by the increased hatred between the member countries. Thus this war was characterized by indirect attacks, thus it can be regarded as the war of words as the superpowers never fought directly. The cold war and the arms race have had profound lasting effects in the economic, political and the social growth of the world. This paper tries to analyze the lasting effects which were created as a result of this cold war and the arms race in general. At the same this paper tries to bring out the methods and the organization of this cold war and the milestone in the arms race in that time of the cold war up to the present world. The end of the cold war does not mean the end of the nuclear dangers. For instance the world is under the second nuclear danger, which is felt through the consequate terrorist attacks and the space missile advancements. (Bourantonis 48-55). The cold war has been regarded as the origin of the nuclear danger in the world up to date. It has been noted that it has created a dangerous world which makes the citizens of different countries to live with a lot of fear. This can be regarded as one of the dangerous challenge which the world superpowers such as the United States of America have ever experienced. The cold war has brought the basic realities of the arms race in the community at large. According to President Reagan, â€Å"nuclear war can not be won and should never be fought†. The cold war can be regarded as a long-term product which was created by the competition and proud ness between the world super powers (Bourantonis 48). In contrast to the fact that the United States, the Soviet Union, France and Britain had joined hands against the axis powers, this led even to much disintegration afterwards which has since reduced the developmental cooperation. There have been major disagreements between these states on regard to the direction of the post war world. ASfter the end of this cold war the military powers were mostly possessed by the Soviet Union and the United States of America while the axis powers occupied most of the Europe economic land. After the end of the cold war, it was believed that the nuclear danger had also come to an end, but this is not through up to date. Still there are many issues which need to be answered in relation to the political, social and economic developments. This has been not in light since the nuclear powers had been initially neglected. After the year of 1991 when the cold war ended many people believed that there would be better trends which shall promote the security of the world, but that has proved to be a nightmare. The effects of the cold war have not stopped but instead they have reversed their direction. It is true that there is a new era of the arms race which can be regarded as the second nuclear age (Buchanan, Tom 75-79). The United States of America taught that the expansion of the Soviet Union would threaten the developing nations. Thus in the year of 1949 Mr. Truman who was then the president of United States of America had negotiated four hundred dollars from the congress for the promotion of the technical developments in the Latin America ,Africa and Asia. But such a move was not to develop these countries but to prevent the spread and growth of the communism principles which were supported by the Soviet Union (Byrad, Peter 68-69) . Consequently the United States of America and other Western powers made alliances to act against the attempts of the Soviet in extending their influences in the word, both in the economic and the political matters. After the end of the cold war there was a lot of the dictatorship among the countries in the western sphere. For instance in the year of 1949 the united states of America decided to sign a treat which was commonly known as the North Atlantic Treaty, where by the members said that the if any country which was a member was attacked, then it would be considered as an attack to all (Cowley 33-35). In response to this the Soviet formed an alliance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact. As a result of this arms race many countries in the world have a lot of the nuclear weapons which has generally endangered the world security. Although the nuclear arms decrease is the main aim of most of the countries, some of the negotiation process has consequently failed. The first arms negotiation which took place in Moscow between Moscow and Washington in the year of the 1969 aimed at reducing the massive weapons which were established during the cold war failed. Consequently there was the formation of the ABM Treaty in the year of 1972 between the Moscow and Washington, whereby it was agreed that the involved countries would reduce the nuclear missile system, but this treaty has been in jeopardy. At the same time there was the formation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treat (NPT), which was one of the arms treat which was negotiated in the post war era. This NPT treaty which was signed in the year of 1968 was considered as one of the most important treaty which would have improved the security of the world but it has been constantly claimed that it was a plot between Moscow and Washington to promote their own interests (Crocker 27) Actually the conflict which is in the high degree between the Soviet Union and the Western world as been regarded as the basic catalyzing factor which is increasing the arms race in the present world (Dobrynini15). Although the collapse of the Soviet union in the year of 1991 was seen as the end of the arms race, this is not true. There is a lot of political struggles in the present world which has promoted the insecurity thus taking the place of the cold war. As the increase of the nuclear dangers is still felt in the present world, then the nuclear powers will not justify before the global world the reasons why they are holding their nuclear production strategies. The present world has tremendously changed. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war, the world had prophesized the end of the bipolar powers and the establishment of the multpolar powers. (Ericson 12-14). The United States of America had consequently has taken a new relationship by claiming that they are building an everlasting environment for solving their former nuclear disputes. For instance the United States government claims that it has taken a peace full dialogue of arms disarmament so as to reduce the arms powers in the world. But this method is not operational since other countries posses the nuclear weapons secretly without exposing them. The present world can be regarded as a world with increased threats. The world has reached in an era which makes the countries to push for the national security . Friedman, Norman (69), says that† As the cold war threat of massive nuclear strike has receded, new threats have emerged related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles†. At this century we are seeing a different picture which is developing slowly in the world. The arms control treats has totally collapsed. For instance the START treaty has reduced it s function since 1993 and it is in the process of breaking down. At the same time the ABM treaty is also in limbo due to the fact that the United States of America has decided to construct the missile defense systems. This defense system has consequently led to a lot of conflicts between Russia and the United States of America. The United States of America had requested Russia to comply with the amendments of the Start treaty so as to allow the United States of America to establish it s missile defense systems but Russia has constantly refused by arguing that the missile system may destabilize the nuclear race balance between the member countries. This missile defense system may be regarded as one way of the arms race in existence in the present world. Generally the post cold war time has proved to be having the bad conditions in regard to the nuclear arms control. The international interactions between many countries have deteriorated to a great extent. The economic developments have reduced between United States of America and Russia due to effect of the nuclear weapons development by these two powers. These two countries have been regarded as the forcing powers in the control of the nuclear weapons in the world. The nuclear weapons were consequently used by the United States of America and Russia. These nuclear weapons have a lot of impact in the world of today as they can destroy the entire world in general. Both indirectly and directly, the nuclear weapons have a profound effects in the relations between the United states of America and Russia (Soviet Union). Regardless of the fact that the United states of America and Russia have a particular duty in the development of the world s nuclear weapons policies, they have been implicated in the nuclear mess as they have experienced many problems from their creation. As a result the world security council has created the nuclear policies which regulate the arms development in the world. Russia and the United States of America are regarded as the leaders of the nuclear weapons development. At the same time the other countries has emerged successfully in the production of the lethal weapons such as the atomic bombs and some long range missiles which can be used in the war periods to deliver the nuclear devices from a long distance. For instance the relationship of the Russia and the United States of America as been in a difficult state as a result of the nuclear development between these two nations which have been regarded as super powers at one instance. When Bolsheviks was declared the leader of Russia, United states of America developed some enemity with the Soviet Union and it consequently cancelled the diplomatic links with the Soviet Union until the year of 1934 (Wolf 35-39). But in the year of 1941 United states of America and the Soviet united against Germany. The end of the Second World War which was characterized by the arms race between the countries led to the creation of two major alliances which served as the arms block. These alliances came to be known as NATO and the Warsaw Treaty. These two alliances were greatly involved in the cold war. The countries which were involved were supposed to adhere to the principles of either the USSR or United States of America in terms the political, economc and the military practices. In reward to their participation these countries would gain some security. This type of collaboration would be regarded as a type of colonialism. The Soviet Union and The United states of America had a cold war instead of a real war which is usually characterized by the participation of the military. As a result those countries which not allied to either the United States of America or USSR block started looking for means of creating their own nuclear weapons. For instance some countries like Britain and China succeeded. Thus this led to the establishment of five general nuclear powers which included the USSR, USA, Britain, France and China (Blum, William, 15-30). The long term effects of the arms race can be detected in the nuclear terrorism. Many of the terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda have consequently used the same lethal weapons which were produced during the cold war. Most of the arms which are used in the terrorism attacks originate from the inferior countries which were developing the nuclear weapons silently. Not only that the arms race ended during the end of the cold war, but also the arms race is on progress. For instance many countries such as India, North Korea, Pakistan and Pakistan have constantly started to develop the nuclear weapons . This countries argue that they are carrying out peace full technological research. This is regarded as one method of establishing the nuclear weapons without the presence of the cold war. The historical lesson behind the nuclear weapons development is that those who develop them are responding to the fear that they may be attacked. As President Roosevelt quoted† The Soviet Union then raced to build the bomb because it feared the nuclear might of the United†. Consequently it might be established that the Indian government tested it s military for fear of the Chinese nuclear might. At the same time China carried out it s bomb tests because they feared the nuclear advancement of the Soviet Union and The United States (Breslauer, George, 37-38). There is a series of the threats and on the other hand some counter threats in the present world that links with the cold war are springing in the southern Asia and this links the future establishments of the nuclear weapons in the region. It has been quoted that many nations have developed nuclear weapons as a result of the regional reasons (Edelheit, Hershel, 45). In general the post cold war has a lot of lasting developments. There are no effective measures which can be used to eliminate the nuclear weapons. This is the emergence of the nuclear dangers. In this world, the nuclear advancement to other nations and the nuclear proliferation of the present nuclear powers can be regarded as the second dangerous era. The other lasting effects of this cold war and the arms race in general are that, the economic growth of the involved countries decreased. The expenses of the United States of America were high. Many American armies lost their lives in the Korea and Vietnam wars. Consequently the Soviet soldiers lost their lives also. Other people died in the Western Asia since the Asian soil was commonly used as the fighting ground of the axis powers. At the same time after the collapse of the cold war, Russia cut the military numbers. This step led to the unemployment of many people. Consequently after the Russian government started the capitalist reforms, it suffered the financial constrains which is more severe than the great depression of the 1930. In general the living standards in Russia have reduced during this post cold war period(Aslund, Anders 54). The environmental effect of this cold war and the arms race is one of the outstanding effects to the citizens of the involved countries. For instance the bombs which could explode caused a lot of environment pollution in the present world. The Japan bombing by the United States of America led to the release of the dangerous gases which have since then led to the birth deformity of the subsequent generations. Moreover the remains of these lethal weapons have caused a lot of air pollution and soil pollution. Even up to date the effect of such bombings is felt, many people lost their people whom they depended on to provide the daily live hood. The cold war up to date serves as one of the influential force in the world affairs, for instance the political roles in the United States of America are determined by the cold war, the ones who were supporters of the communistic groups have no much support. Those were against the Soviet Union are regarded as the true sons of the American soil thus they get much political benefits. Following the effect of McCarthyism theory which led to many prosecution of those w leading top much suffering. Thus in conclusion it can be determined that the cold war and the arms race in general has a lasting effect in the worlds up to date. Works cited Andrew, Christopher; Mitrokhin, Vasili, the Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books, 2000. 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