Grace Picariello
March 15, 2017
The article I found on the New York Times discusses how the recent advancement in nuclear arms capabilities of the United States and Russia might revive the Cold War style of nuclear arms race. At the end of the nuclear security summit, Barack Obama warned "of the potential for 'ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race'" (Broad, Sanger, NYT). With the advancements of the nuclear weaponry come more concerns. One being that the precision and less-destructive nature of these new weapons raises the temptation to use them" (Broad, Sanger, NYT). This is especially interesting because one of the focal points of Obama's election platform was to decrease, and eventually eliminate, nuclear arms. Instead, however, the abilities ramped up and the spending on nuclear weapons increased to total almost a trillion dollars in the time span of about three years (Broad, Sanger, NYT). Dr. Gubrud, a nuclear arms specialist at the University of North Carolina says, "The world has failed to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle...And new genies are now getting loose" (Broad, Sanger, NYT).
I thought that this article related to the readings for class since it discusses the tensions between the United States and Russia regarding nuclear weaponry. In one of the texts for class, the comparisons between the U.S.' nuclear capabilities are compared to that of Russia's. While Barack Obama was pushing for decreasing the production and testing of nuclear weapons, President Trump thinks that we need more. He argues for this since he believes Russia has "a much newer capability than we do" (Lockie, Business Insider). This is a typical telling point of the idea of a zero-sum game. Trump feels inferior since we have less weapons than Russia and so he will move to create more, which will inevitable inspire Russia to follow suit. Leaving both nations constantly trying to advance technologies that we might not ever need or use.
Works Cited
Broad, William J., Sanger, David E., "Race for Latest Class of Nuclear Arms Threatens to Revive Cold War", The New York Times (April 16, 2016): https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/science/atom-bomb-nuclear-weapons-hgv-arms-race-russia-china.html?_r=0
Lockie, Alex, "How the U.S.'s Nuclear Weapons Compare to Russia's", Business Insider (September 28, 2016): http://www.businessinsider.com/us-vs-russia-nuclear-weapons-2016-9
I really like how you took the issue of nuclear power and applied it to what actions are being taken under the Trump administration. However, I'm curious as to how you would go about the situation if in charge. Since Russia has more nuclear weapons, do you agree that we need to create more to balance out with Russia, or do you think we should work together to create a future where nuclear power is limited?
ReplyDeleteThis was very well thought out and well written post. If put in charge, I would agree with Trump that the only thing preventing the use of such weapons is the fact that both sides have an equal amount. If it is true that Russia does in fact have more weapons, then we must as well. I'm interested to know what you think.
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