Arms Races Can Ensure World Stability

Arms Race Can Ensure World Stability


      Man’s intelligence is of no question the most powerful weapon ever created. With it and his relentless desire for power and wealth, he endeavors to invent and develop as deadly weapon as he possibly can so as to destroy his opponents. The nations having such weapons, particularly atomic bomb are deemed to be the world’s superpowers. As a result, the most affluent countries attempt to compete for military power, which leads to arms race, the situation in which two or more countries try to have more and stronger weapons than each other. Although there seems to be a contradiction that invention of weapons prevents the outbreak of war, arms race can be an effective mean to ensure world stability if we examine the facts about cold war in the past and present superpowers.

When each country reaches the zenith of weapon making, arms race will bring about mutual destruction if they attack each other. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that war will arise. The occurrence of cold war between US and Soviet Union, from 1947 to 1991, personified that even though both countries had hostile relations with each other on account of a complete difference of political ideology, democracy and communism, and competition of weaponry, there was no eruption of war between the two countries at that time. Then in 1991, cold war ended as the Soviet Union suffered from the economic downturn as well as the fragmentation of communism and could no longer afford the cost of the arms race. The bottom line was that if the fight broke out, they gained nothing but destruction. Instead of combating, they rather spent money on the military so that they could upgrade their weaponry and become the world power; this was killing two birds with one stone. The confrontation between the two superpowers, U.S and the Soviet Union, in the arms race led to world peace and stability.

Once the countries in arms race achieve a condition that if an attack breaks...