It would be great if we could have a world without nuclear weapons. This is a dream for many idealists, but a farfetched reality for most pragmatists. Some consider this dream possible, if we were able to rid the world of despotic dictators. Others say that human nature and its proclivity for conflict makes war inevitable. Thus, countries need the right to defend themselves from foreign threats. Meanwhile, the uninformed, without any regard for what’s happening in the world, say that every nation should make a pledge to destroy their nuclear weapons arsenal immediately.
This brings me to the United Nations and its new commitment to implementing nuclear disarmament. With its upsetting track record, the U.N. has rarely been effective in accomplishing anything from holding successful peacekeeping operations, to preventing genocide, or to maintaining human rights. Even with the support of President Barack Obama, the inherent corruption and bureaucracy of the U.N. will make disarmament nearly impossible. With unpredictable countries like Iran and North Korea, countries will not be willing to lessen their deterrence.
While Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t the most unstable world leader, his country is the biggest threat to our strongest ally in the Middle East: Israel. According to the New York Times, “Iran’s agreement in principle … to ship what American officials called ‘most’ of its declared stockpile of lightly enriched uranium to Russia and France to be turned into nuclear fuel.”^1,2 According to experts at the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency, Iran has all the materials to make an atomic weapon.³ Using this material, Iran is most likely gearing up to create weapons earmarked for use on Israel or, at the very least, to sell them off to any number of terrorist organizations. This may cause Israel to preemptively attack Iran. Considering that nearly all the oil leaving the Middle East passes through the Strait of Hormuz, right off the coast of Iran, Iran is likely (and has threatened) to choke off this passageway if Israel or the United States attacks.⁴ This would put 40% of the world’s oil in the hands of a single country, and a volatile one at that.
In contrast, North Korea has perhaps the world’s most deranged dictator, Kim Jong Il. While the man is of poor health, his third son is poised to take over. North Korea, with its habit of testing missiles and bombs, is a major threat to our ally, South Korea. North Korea also has the capability to strike Japan, and even Hawaii with its missiles.⁵
The UN’s dream of a nuke-free world is nice, but idealist, at least for now. If every nation were a democracy or a constitutional republic, it would be easier to rid the world of most of its nuclear weapons. But, for now, with some of the world’s farcical governments threatening proliferation and stockpiling, we’ll have to put that dream on hold.
1) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/middleeast/02nuke.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
2) http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSLP63169620090226
3) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iran_nuclear
4) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374905,00.html
5) http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/03/n.korea.military/index.html

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Articles, Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.