The Necessity of Strategic Arms Control to Maintain U.S. Security

The Necessity of Strategic Arms Control to Maintain U.S. Security

General Topic: Strategic Arms Control

Narrow Topic: Strategic Arms Control Increases U.S. Security

Thesis: Even though nuclear weapons help maintain international security through deterrence, controlling the production and proliferation of nuclear weapons through strategic arms control is essential to U.S. national security because several nations have either acquired nuclear weapons or demonstrated an interest in pursuing the capabilities needed to develop them.

OUTLINE

I. Abstract

II. Main Body

A. Introduction

B. Reduction of Nuclear Arsenals Through Arms Reduction Treaties

1. SALT I

2. SALT II

3. START I

4. START II

5. START III

6. New START

C. How the Fall of the Soviet Union Decreased Nuclear Security

1. Lack of Security of Nuclear Material

2. Unemployed Nuclear Scientists

3. Russian Scientists and Iran

D. State and Non-State Actors Attempting to Acquire Nuclear Technology or Materials are a Threat to Global Stability

1. Nuclear Weapon Proliferation

2. The Iran, Syria and North Korea Scenario

3. Fissile Material

E. Russia’s Resurgence on the Reliance of Nuclear Weapons for National Security

1. Russian Fears of United States and NATO Conventional Superiority

2. Russia’s Conventional Military

3. Russia’s Nuclear Arsenal Modernization

F. Strategic Arms Reduction Increases U.S. Security

G. Opposing Argument

H. Conclusion

I. References

Abstract

Nuclear technology has certainly saved lives, especially with its use in 1945 that effectively ended the Second World War. Russia acquired the same technology, however, which initiated a half-century Cold War with the United States (U.S.). This led to an ominous threat of possible nuclear destruction wherein two of the world’s superpowers would theoretically wipe out each other. The Cold War...