Is Deterrence Still a Useful Concept in the Post-Cold War World Research Paper

Is Deterrence Still a Useful Concept in the Post-Cold War World - Research Paper Example In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, international policymakers became increasingly preoccupied with the potential ramifications of nuclear warfare in creating an imbalance within the world political order. After the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Stalin asserted that â€Å"A single demand for your comrades†¦ Provide us with atomic weapons in the shortest possible time. You know that Hiroshima has shaken the whole world. The balance has been destroyed. Provide the bomb – it will remove a great danger from us1†. From a historical perspective, the Cold War phase following the Second World War led to what has been termed the â€Å"First Nuclear Age†2. This phase highlights how nuclear weapons’ programmes were rooted in the need of both superpowers to assert power in the arms race3. Moreover, Walton & Gray submit that the demise of this superpower rivalry has re-ignited the nuclear proliferation question in arms control measures within the world political framework4. This in itself highlights that the stability of international relations and the political balance at the international level is inherently dependent on the axis of nuclear control. Therefore, whilst the deterrence theory undoubtedly plays a central role in the relationship between nuclear war programmes and international relations, the inherent weakness of the theory is the failure to account for the changing global political climate, whereby nuclear strategy and proliferation is shaped by a correlation of complex, mu ltifarious.