Editing Nuclear weapon (section)

== Governance, control, and law ==
{{Main|International Atomic Energy Agency|Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Strategic Arms Limitation Talks|Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty|START I|START II|Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty|Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty|Lahore Declaration|New START|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons}}
{{See also|Anti-nuclear movement}}

Because they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation and possible use of nuclear weapons are important issues in international relations and diplomacy. In most countries, the use of nuclear force can only be authorized by the [[head of government]] or [[head of state]].{{efn|In the United States, the President and the Secretary of Defense, acting as the [[National Command Authority (United States)|National Command Authority]], must ''jointly'' authorize the use of nuclear weapons.}} Despite controls and regulations governing nuclear weapons, there is an inherent danger of "accidents, mistakes, false alarms, blackmail, theft, and sabotage".<ref>[[Eric Schlosser]], [http://bos.sagepub.com/content/71/6/11.full Today's nuclear dilemma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101090600/http://bos.sagepub.com/content/71/6/11.full |date=January 1, 2016 }}, ''[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'', November/December 2015, vol. 71 no. 6, 11–17.</ref>

In the late 1940s, lack of mutual trust prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from making progress on arms control agreements. The [[Russell–Einstein Manifesto]] was issued in [[London]] on July 9, 1955, by [[Bertrand Russell]] in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. The signatories included eleven pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists, including [[Albert Einstein]], who signed it just days before his death on April 18, 1955. A few days after the release, philanthropist [[Cyrus S. Eaton]] offered to sponsor a conference—called for in the manifesto—in [[Pugwash, Nova Scotia]], Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the [[Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs]], held in July 1957.

By the 1960s, steps were taken to limit both the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries and the environmental effects of [[nuclear testing]]. The [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]] (1963) restricted all nuclear testing to [[underground nuclear testing]], to prevent contamination from nuclear fallout, whereas the [[Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons]] (1968) attempted to place restrictions on the types of activities signatories could participate in, with the goal of allowing the transference of non-military [[nuclear technology]] to member countries without fear of proliferation.

[[File:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.svg|thumb|UN vote on adoption of the [[Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] on July 7, 2017<br />{{Leftlegend|#008cff|Yes}} {{Leftlegend|#ff0000|No}}{{Leftlegend|#c0c0c0|Did not vote}}]]
In 1957, the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]] (IAEA) was established under the mandate of the [[United Nations]] to encourage development of peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. In 1996, many nations signed the [[Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty]],<ref name=status /> which prohibits all testing of nuclear weapons. A testing ban imposes a significant hindrance to nuclear arms development by any complying country.<ref name="Richelson">Richelson, Jeffrey. ''Spying on the bomb: American nuclear intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea.'' New York: Norton, 2006.</ref> The Treaty requires the ratification by 44 specific states before it can go into force; {{as of|2012|lc=y}}, the ratification of eight of these states is still required.<ref name=status>Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (2010). "[http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification Status of Signature and Ratification] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406151906/http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/ |date=April 6, 2011}}". Accessed May 27, 2010. Of the "Annex 2" states whose ratification of the CTBT is required before it enters into force, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, and the United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty. India, North Korea, and Pakistan have not signed the Treaty.</ref>

Additional treaties and agreements have governed nuclear weapons stockpiles between the countries with the two largest stockpiles, the United States and the Soviet Union, and later between the United States and Russia. These include treaties such as [[SALT II]] (never ratified), [[START I]] (expired), [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty|INF]], [[START II]] (never in effect), [[SORT]], and [[New START]], as well as non-binding agreements such as [[SALT I]] and the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives<ref>[http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/pniglance The Presidential Nuclear Initiatives (PNIs) on Tactical Nuclear Weapons At a Glance] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119164340/http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/pniglance |date=January 19, 2011}}, Fact Sheet, Arms Control Association.</ref> of 1991. Even when they did not enter into force, these agreements helped limit and later reduce the numbers and types of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia.

Nuclear weapons have also been opposed by agreements between countries. Many nations have been declared [[Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone]]s, areas where nuclear weapons production and deployment are prohibited, through the use of treaties. The [[Treaty of Tlatelolco]] (1967) prohibited any production or deployment of nuclear weapons in [[Latin America]] and the [[Caribbean]], and the [[Treaty of Pelindaba]] (1964) prohibits nuclear weapons in many African countries. As recently as 2006 a [[Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone]] was established among the former Soviet republics of Central Asia prohibiting nuclear weapons. [[File:Nuke-world-map-2024.png|thumb| The number of nuclear warheads by country in 2024, based on an estimation by the [[Federation of American Scientists]].]] 

In 1996, the [[International Court of Justice]], the highest court of the United Nations, issued an Advisory Opinion concerned with the "[[International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons|Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons]]". The court ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would violate various articles of [[international law]], including the [[Geneva Conventions]], the [[Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)|Hague Conventions]], the [[UN Charter]], and the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]. Given the unique, destructive characteristics of nuclear weapons, the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] calls on States to ensure that these weapons are never used, irrespective of whether they consider them lawful or not.<ref>[http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/section_ihl_nuclear_weapons Nuclear weapons and international humanitarian law] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421062555/http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/section_ihl_nuclear_weapons |date=April 21, 2010}} International Committee of the Red Cross</ref>

Additionally, there have been other, specific actions meant to discourage countries from developing nuclear arms. In the wake of the tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, economic sanctions were (temporarily) levied against both countries, though neither were signatories with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One of the stated ''[[casus belli]]'' for the initiation of the 2003 [[Iraq War]] was an accusation by the United States that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear arms (though this was soon discovered [[Niger uranium forgeries|not to be the case]] as the program had been discontinued). In 1981, Israel had [[Operation Opera|bombed a nuclear reactor]] being constructed in [[Osirak]], [[Iraq]], in what it called an attempt to halt Iraq's previous nuclear arms ambitions; in 2007, Israel [[Operation Orchard|bombed another reactor]] being constructed in [[Syria]].

In 2013, [[Mark Diesendorf]] said that governments of France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, UK, and South Africa have used nuclear power or research reactors to assist nuclear weapons development or to contribute to their supplies of nuclear explosives from military reactors.<ref name=diesrev>{{cite web |url=http://www.ies.unsw.edu.au/sites/all/files/MD%20BookReview_EnergyPolicy2013.pdf |title=Book review: Contesting the future of nuclear power |author=Mark Diesendorf |year=2013 |website=Energy Policy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927163154/http://www.ies.unsw.edu.au/sites/all/files/MD%20BookReview_EnergyPolicy2013.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |author-link=Mark Diesendorf |access-date=July 9, 2013}}{{dubious|date=July 2013}}</ref> In 2017, 122 countries mainly in the [[Global South]] voted in favor of adopting the [[Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]], which eventually entered into force in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the TPNW |url=https://www.icanw.org/history_of_the_tpnw |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=ICAN |language=en |archive-date=June 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605172312/https://www.icanw.org/history_of_the_tpnw |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Doomsday Clock]] measures the likelihood of a human-made [[Global catastrophic risk|global catastrophe]] and is published annually by the [[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]. The two years with the highest likelihood had previously been 1953, when the Clock was set to two minutes until midnight after the US and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs, and 2018, following the failure of world leaders to address tensions relating to nuclear weapons and climate change issues.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/doomsday-clock-closer-nuclear-midnight/index.html|title='Doomsday clock' ticks closer to apocalyptic midnight|last=Koran|first=Laura|work=[[CNN]]|date=January 25, 2018|access-date=November 3, 2019|archive-date=November 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103111015/https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/doomsday-clock-closer-nuclear-midnight/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2023, following the [[Nuclear threats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine|escalation of nuclear threats]] during the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], the doomsday clock was set to 90 seconds, the highest likelihood of global catastrophe since the existence of the Doomsday Clock.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spinazze |first=Gayle |date=2023-01-24 |title=PRESS RELEASE: Doomsday Clock set at 90 seconds to midnight |url=https://thebulletin.org/2023/01/press-release-doomsday-clock-set-at-90-seconds-to-midnight/ |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |language=en-US |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124152126/https://thebulletin.org/2023/01/press-release-doomsday-clock-set-at-90-seconds-to-midnight/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

As of 2024, Russia has intensified nuclear threats in Ukraine and is reportedly planning to place nuclear weapons in orbit, breaching the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. China is significantly expanding its nuclear arsenal, with projections of over 1,000 warheads by 2030 and up to 1,500 by 2035. North Korea is progressing in intercontinental ballistic missile tests and has a mutual-defense treaty with Russia, exchanging artillery for possible missile technology. Iran is currently viewed as a nuclear "threshold" state.<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 August 2024 |title=America prepares for a new nuclear-arms race |url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/08/12/america-prepares-for-a-new-nuclear-arms-race |access-date=2024-08-13 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

=== 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> 

=== United Nations ===
{{Main|United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs}}
The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is a department of the [[United Nations Secretariat]] established in January 1998 as part of the [[United Nations Secretary-General]] [[Kofi Annan]]'s plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]] in July 1997.<ref>{{cite web |author=Kofi Annan |url=https://undocs.org/A/51/950 |title=Renewing the United Nations: A Program for Reform |id=A/51/950 |publisher=United Nations |date=July 14, 1997 |access-date=March 17, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318000952/http://undocs.org/A/51/950 |archive-date=March 18, 2017}}</ref>

Its goal is to promote nuclear disarmament and [[non-proliferation]] and the strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, [[chemical weapon|chemical]] and [[biological agent|biological weapons]]. It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of [[conventional weapon]]s, especially [[land mine]]s and [[small arms]], which are often the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts.