Nuclear Weapon: Issues, Threat and Consequence Management

The invention of nuclear weapons, the ultimate among the three weapons of mass destruction, has given rise to entirely novel conditions that have fundamentally affected the concept of war in contemporary human history. The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 during World War II were the two most remarkable acts of war in recorded military history. Fortunately, there have been no uses for this deadly device after that, but thousands of nuclear tests have taken place. Also, many accidents due to human or technical errors occurred with large-scale environmental and health-related effects. The so-called great and emerging powers have stockpiled thousands of nuclear weapons in their arsenals overtly, and the non-state actors, primarily transnational terrorist groups, may have stockpiled covertly to unleash a catastrophic scenario hitherto witnessed or imagined. We have seen the restraint to use nuclear devices against any rival nations within the state actors, but there is a remote possibility of similar restraint from a terrorist group.

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