Nuclear Weapon

1. Introduction

1. Background Introduction

After the drop of nuclear bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the devastating effect of nuclear weapons on the society and the civilization has been concerned by people around the world. Despite the destructive effect of the nuclear weapons, there is still controversy over whether the use of nuclear weapons should be completely prohibited by the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). As a result, the status of nuclear weapon is indeed vague and unclear.

2. International Humanitarian Law and its purposes

International Humanitarian Law is known as the law of wars or the law of armed conflict. It is actually a set of rules to limit the effects of armed conflicts and to protect people participating or not participating in the armed conflict and regulate the means and methods of warfare. It mainly includes the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 and some other agreements regulating the conduct during wars.[1] It aims at protecting the innocent people and reducing the harm when there is an unavoidable armed conflict. With respect to the restrictions on weapons, there are a set of principles to limit the use of weapons as well.

3. The stance and structure of the essay

In this essay, the writer believes that nuclear weapons are adequately regulated by International Humanitarian Law in a large extent though there is some insufficiency. In this essay, “adequately regulated” means that the security is not adversely affected by the nuclear weapons and that the nuclear weapons are not deployed in any armed conflicts. This stance will be explained by defining what nuclear weapons are in the IHL. Then, it will go through the current state of nuclear weapons under the IHL. Furthermore, it will talk about how the IHL regulates the nuclear weapons and its insufficiency.

2. Definition of Nuclear Weapon in International Humanitarian Law

Nuclear weapons are...