Editing Nuclear weapon (section)

=== Disarmament ===
{{Main|Nuclear disarmament}}
{{for|statistics on possession and deployment|List of states with nuclear weapons}}
[[File:US and USSR nuclear stockpiles.svg|thumb|left|The [[USSR]] and United States nuclear weapon stockpiles throughout the [[Cold War]] until 2015, with a precipitous drop in total numbers following the end of the Cold War in 1991.]]

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are eliminated.

Beginning with the 1963 [[Partial Test Ban Treaty]] and continuing through the 1996 [[Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty]], there have been many treaties to limit or reduce nuclear weapons testing and stockpiles. The 1968 [[Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]] has as one of its explicit conditions that all signatories must "pursue negotiations in good faith" towards the long-term goal of "complete disarmament". The nuclear-weapon states have largely treated that aspect of the agreement as "decorative" and without force.<ref>Gusterson, Hugh, "[http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/finding-article-vi Finding Article VI] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917225812/http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/finding-article-vi |date=September 17, 2008}}" ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' (January 8, 2007).</ref>

Only one country—South Africa—has ever fully renounced nuclear weapons they had independently developed. The former Soviet republics of [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Ukraine]] returned Soviet nuclear arms stationed in their countries to Russia after the [[collapse of the USSR]].

Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine the present [[nuclear peace]] and deterrence and would lead to increased global instability. Various American elder statesmen,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nuclear-energy-after-fukushima/2011/10/05/gIQAbxIFRL_story.html |title=Nuclear energy after Fukushima |author=Jim Hoagland |date=October 6, 2011 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001011125/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-10-06/opinions/35279184_1_nuclear-weapons-nuclear-power-nuclear-energy |archive-date=October 1, 2013 |access-date=September 6, 2017 }}</ref> who were in office during the [[Cold War]] period, have been advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons. These officials include [[Henry Kissinger]], [[George Shultz]], [[Sam Nunn]], and [[William J. Perry|William Perry]]. In January 2010, [[Lawrence M. Krauss]] stated that "no issue carries more importance to the long-term health and security of humanity than the effort to reduce, and perhaps one day, rid the world of nuclear weapons".<ref>Lawrence M. Krauss. The Doomsday Clock Still Ticks, ''Scientific American'', January 2010, p. 26.</ref>

[[File:SS-24 silo destruction.jpg|right|thumb|[[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] workers use equipment provided by the US [[Defense Threat Reduction Agency]] to dismantle a Soviet-era missile silo. After the end of the Cold War, Ukraine and the other non-Russian, post-Soviet republics relinquished Soviet nuclear stockpiles to Russia.]]

In January 1986, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] publicly proposed a three-stage program for abolishing the world's nuclear weapons by the end of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Taubman |year=2017 |title=Gorbachev: His Life and Times |location=New York City |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4711-4796-8 |page=291}}</ref> In the years after the end of the Cold War, there have been numerous campaigns to urge the abolition of nuclear weapons, such as that organized by the [[Global Zero (campaign)|Global Zero]] movement, and the goal of a "world without nuclear weapons" was advocated by United States President [[Barack Obama]] in an April 2009 speech in [[Prague]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/05/obama-prague-speech-on-nu_n_183219.html |title=Obama Prague Speech On Nuclear Weapons |publisher=Huffingtonpost.com |date=April 5, 2009 |access-date=May 30, 2013 |first=Nick |last=Graham |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509130409/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/05/obama-prague-speech-on-nu_n_183219.html |archive-date=May 9, 2013}}</ref> A [[CNN]] poll from April 2010 indicated that the American public was nearly evenly split on the issue.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/12/cnn-poll-public-divided-on-eliminating-all-nuclear-weapons/ |title=CNN Poll: Public divided on eliminating all nuclear weapons |publisher=Politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com |date=April 12, 2010 |access-date=May 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721061030/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/12/cnn-poll-public-divided-on-eliminating-all-nuclear-weapons/ |archive-date=July 21, 2013 }}</ref>

Some analysts have argued that nuclear weapons have made the world relatively safer, with peace through [[deterrence theory|deterrence]] and through the [[stability–instability paradox]], including in south Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/ESCCONTROLCHAPTER1.pdf|title=The Stability-Instability Paradox, Misperception, and Escalation Control in South Asia|first=Michael|last=Krepon|website=Stimson|access-date=November 20, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924110533/http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/ESCCONTROLCHAPTER1.pdf|archive-date=September 24, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://krepon.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2911/the-stability-instability-paradox|title=Michael Krepon • The Stability-Instability Paradox|access-date=October 24, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150112223352/http://krepon.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2911/the-stability-instability-paradox|archive-date=January 12, 2015}}</ref> [[Kenneth Waltz]] has argued that nuclear weapons have helped keep an uneasy peace, and further nuclear weapon proliferation might even help avoid the large scale conventional wars that were so common before their invention at the end of [[World War II]].<ref name=waltz /> But former Secretary [[Henry Kissinger]] says there is a new danger, which cannot be addressed by deterrence: "The classical notion of deterrence was that there was some consequences before which aggressors and evildoers would recoil. In a world of suicide bombers, that calculation doesn't operate in any comparable way".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ben-goddard/59952-cold-warriors-say-no-nukes/ |title=Cold Warriors say no nukes |author=Ben Goddard |date=January 27, 2010 |website=The Hill |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213100710/http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ben-goddard/78391-cold-warriors-say-no-nukes |archive-date=February 13, 2014}}</ref> [[George Shultz]] has said, "If you think of the people who are doing suicide attacks, and people like that get a nuclear weapon, they are almost by definition not deterrable".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thebulletin.org/new-abolitionists |title=The new abolitionists |author=Hugh Gusterson |date=March 30, 2012 |website=[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140217074609/http://thebulletin.org/new-abolitionists |archive-date=February 17, 2014 |author-link=Hugh Gusterson |access-date=February 2, 2014 }}</ref>

As of early 2019, more than 90% of world's 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by Russia and the United States.<ref>{{cite news |first=Kelsey |last=Reichmann |title=Here's how many nuclear warheads exist, and which countries own them |url=https://www.defensenews.com/global/2019/06/16/heres-how-many-nuclear-warheads-exist-and-which-countries-own-them/ |work=[[Defense News]] |date=June 16, 2019 |access-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728104810/https://www.defensenews.com/global/2019/06/16/heres-how-many-nuclear-warheads-exist-and-which-countries-own-them/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Global Nuclear Arsenal Declines, But Future Cuts Uncertain Amid U.S.-Russia Tensions |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/nuclear-weapons-russia-start-inf-warheads/30003088.html |work=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] (RFE/RL) |date=June 17, 2019 |access-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-date=July 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702194556/https://www.rferl.org/a/nuclear-weapons-russia-start-inf-warheads/30003088.html |url-status=live }}</ref>