The United States has recently drafted a new nuclear strategy that permits the use of nuclear weapons as retaliation against devastating cyber attacks. Although this nuclear strategy is not approved by President Trump yet, it carries major implications for the current state of nuclear weapons. The United States' inclination toward broadening the scope of what warrants nuclear retaliation may spread to other nuclear-armed states. Nuclear-armed states will be perceived as comparatively passive if they do not adopt similar retaliation strategies. Furthermore, the new nuclear strategy increases the probability of nuclear weapons usage against non-nuclear-weapon states. Between two nuclear-armed states, mutually assured destruction will still play a significant role in preventing nuclear weapons warfare. However, between a non-nuclear-weapon state and a nuclear-armed state, the nuclear-armed state becomes more prone to use nuclear weapons since the cause to use nuclear weapons has broadened. This news article also brings into question what qualifies as "extreme circumstances" that justify the use of nuclear weapons. Recent improvements in technology have led to an increasingly diverse and broad range of threat. Which one of these threats can be considered as legitimate grounds for nuclear retaliation? Who should be in charge of making these judgments? These are all questions that should be addressed in a draft resolution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/pentagon-nuclear-review-cyberattack-trump.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/pentagon-nuclear-review-cyberattack-trump.html
The Delegation of Germany acknowledges the United States and Russia's attempts to provide further security to their nations. Germany would like to bring attention to the worldwide effects that further testing and production of nuclear weapons could bring. Smaller, developing countries feel the full threat as they feel obligated to increase their own production to meet their competition. Countries such as Iran and Pakistan have been attempting to keep up with the dangers that could occur from lack of mass destruction weapons by developing new types of nuclear weapons and nukes. The creation of these weapons leaves countries vulnerable to accidental nuclear launches caused by miscalculations or even cyber attacks.
ReplyDeleteGermany believes that the United States should take initiative in discontinuing the production of nuclear weapons. Having a dominate and highly influential country halt the manufacturing of such mass-destruction weapons would encourage other countries to loosen tensions as the cause of threat will be significantly lowered. The gradual removal of these nuclear weapons would eliminate the threat of mutually assured destruction.