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Short Essay on Nuclear War

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Nawazish Ali

Short Essay on Nuclear War

The use of nuclear weapons in a military conflict or political campaign is known as nuclear warfare. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction that, unlike conventional warfare, may produce havoc in a considerably shorter amount of time and have a long-term radiological effect. A significant nuclear exchange would have long-term consequences, primarily due to the fallout, and might possibly result in a "nuclear winter" lasting decades, centuries, or even millennia after the first attack. Others, on the other hand, argue that the side effects of a nuclear holocaust, such as nuclear catastrophe and societal collapse, would starve practically every human on the planet to death. Some analysts deny the nuclear winter concept, calculating that even with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War levels, billions of people living in rural areas would survive, despite billions of deaths.


The only time nuclear weapons have been used in armed conflict was in 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A uranium gun-type device was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. On August 9, three days later, a plutonium implosion-type weapon was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. These two bombings killed around 200,000 people and contributed to Japan's surrender.


The Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), and the People's Republic of China (1964) all produced nuclear weapons after WWII, contributing to the state of war and severe tension that became known as the Cold War. India and Pakistan, two countries who were openly antagonistic to each other at the time, produced nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, respectively. Israel (1960s) and North Korea (2006) are also thought to have built nuclear weapons stores, however the exact number is unknown. Although it is known that Israel built the reactor and reprocessing plant needed to create nuclear weapons, the Israeli government has never admitted or denied having them. In the 1980s, South Africa also produced many complete nuclear bombs, but it was the first country to willingly destroy its domestically produced weapons stockpiles and cease production (1990s). Over 2,000 nuclear weapons have been exploded for testing and demonstration purposes.


The possibility of a massive nuclear conflict between the two nuclear superpowers was widely assumed to have decreased following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War that followed. Since then, the focus has turned from nuclear weapons to the prevention of localised nuclear conflicts caused by nuclear proliferation, as well as the threat of nuclear terrorism.


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Nawazish Ali
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