Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

For more than forty years (1945–89) most of the world was divided in a bipolar power system: on the one hand, the United States with its allies in the “Western or free world”; on the other hand, the Soviet Union with its allies in the “communist world.” In the same year, 1945, that the world became divided, a new weapon was invented: the nuclear bomb. The weapon was used twice during the end of the war against Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely destroyed. From the beginning of the nuclear era the atomic bomb gave rise to vehement political and ethical disputes. Just after 1945, different opinions rose about nuclear weapons: Just another weapon. The atomic weapon of course is much stronger than the weapons that had existed until then, but its function and its possibilities are not essentially different: it is “just another weapon.” A counterforce weapon. This weapon should (only) be used to destroy the weapons of the enemy. A weapon of terror. As was seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons are weapons of terror that destroy populations. A weapon under international control The American diplomat Bernard Baruch presented a plan to the International Atomic Agency in which he proposed to put the knowledge of atomic weapons under international control. The Russians rejected this proposal. A weapon of deterrence. It was Bernard Brodie who was the first one to say ... log in or subscribe to read full text