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Why are some countries allowed to have nuclear weapons and others not?

Why do some countries of the world have nuclear weapons and forbid them from others?

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Why can't Iran (or other countries) have nuclear weapons that are officially owned by 7 powers? Why are some countries actually "allowed" to possess this weapon and not others? How does the history of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons explain the current situation?


What is the difference between a nuclear and hydrogen bomb?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously expressed his astonishment at the developed countries' possession of nuclear weapons, while America objects to his country's possession of the Russian S-400 defense system.

In a speech at an economic forum in the Turkish city of Sivas, Erdogan said that "some developed countries possess many nuclear warheads," noting that "he met one of the presidents and told him that his country possesses 7,500 nuclear warheads (..)".

Erdogan stressed that the United States and Russia possess tens of thousands of nuclear missiles, asking: "Why don't we have them?", according to the Turkish newspaper, Cumhuriyet.

"They have nuclear missiles, and they don't want me to have a nuclear-powered missile," he said.

When were nuclear weapons known?

According to a report published by the French newspaper "Geopolis" in 2015, the world discovered a new weapon, on August 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, but it did not maintain this distinction for long. In 1949, the Soviet Union began its first tests nuclear power, followed by the United Kingdom in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964.

And soon the Americans did everything to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, and since 1946 Washington has been regulating this issue, as the "McMahon Act", which was amended when tension with the Soviet Union increased and the Cold War declared that all data related to nuclear energy classified as a fraction and prohibited its use in private industry, declares The United States wanted to maintain its progress.

Nuclear Club Countries:

The world's official nuclear powers are Russia, the United States, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

The former Soviet republics—Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus—voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons in the early 1990s in exchange for security guarantees from all major nuclear powers. Moreover, at that time Ukraine had the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and Kazakhstan — the fourth.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: a discriminatory treaty

In a bipolar world, controlling the spread of nuclear weapons was more “simple,” and nuclear weapons were known to prevent direct wars between major powers. The strategy of deterrence was in vogue, and it seemed to have worked despite the tensions of the Cold War.

The two superpowers negotiated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1960, as the acquirers of nuclear technology did not want to prevent the civilian development of nuclear with all the economic interests it could bring by ensuring that the technologies were monitored to avoid any military aberration.

According to academic researcher and policy strategist, Gayrard Chalian, “Controlling the spread of nuclear weapons aims (also) to delay—as much as possible—the possibility of middle powers, especially if they are hostile, becoming a haven. For the stronger, it is about preserving the ability to subjugate the weakest."

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was signed on July 1, 1968, and entered into force on March 5, 1970, after being ratified by the depositary government (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and forty other signatories. Today, it is signed by almost all countries except India, Pakistan, and Israel (North Korea withdrew from the treaty after it signed it).

The basic principle of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is based on the distinction between the nuclear-weapon states that detonated a nuclear bomb before January 1967 and the other states that do not possess nuclear weapons, as the first states (the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France) and China) — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — by signing the treaty not to help other countries acquire nuclear weapons, and the second countries commit themselves not to make or seek nuclear weapons.

On this basis, an arsenal of texts (including the oversight role entrusted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was established in 1957) defined the mechanisms for implementing non-proliferation of nuclear weapons directed at the signatory states.

The only consideration that can reduce the imbalance provided for in the NPT lies in the obligations imposed by Article VI of the text of the Treaty: “Each State party to the Treaty undertakes to continue to conduct the necessary negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to To stop the nuclear arms race at an early date and to disarm nuclear, and a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

Non-signatory countries possessing nuclear weapons:

Despite the non-proliferation treaties, the bomb made a comeback in Asia with the tests of India and Pakistan in 1998, but the two countries are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "India has always refused to sign the NPT, due to its discriminatory nature, as India considers that the treaty simply legitimizes the monopoly on the possession of nuclear weapons and perpetuates it by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council," says Isabel Cabatte, who is doing a thesis about this subject.

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India also refused to sign the treaty banning nuclear testing. As for Pakistan, it has always built its policy according to India: "It will not sign as long as India does not sign."

The two countries were subjected to sanctions by the United States, which ended with the lifting of most of them.

Three countries and three different cases. Iran's nuclear development began in 1950 with the help of the United States, not to mention France in 1970. Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 and ratified it in 1970. At the end of 1980, it developed Iran enrichment technologies (with Pakistan) Iran found itself after being suspected of wanting to acquire weapons and is a party to the treaty, in conflict with society, and imposed sanctions.

The case of North Korea is different because the country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty before it began its nuclear tests.

Finally, Israel, which has not signed the treaty, maintains ambiguity about its military nuclear capabilities.

"Other countries have the technology and scientific knowledge necessary to quickly build nuclear weapons, and therefore these countries can officially confirm that they do not have such weapons," says the Diplo Web site.

Now remains the status of "threshold countries" i.e. countries known for their ability to quickly obtain nuclear weapons but did not develop them, and among these countries, the United States placed Iraq (wrongly) and invaded, but other countries can enter into this classification, but the concept is still ambiguous It seems that Iran is in this category, and there are also other countries capable of enriching uranium, such as South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, and Japan.

In a multipolar world, the absence of a security system seems to push middle powers to bolster their arsenal. To the point of acquiring a nuclear weapon. The current system of nuclear non-proliferation, based on inequality between the countries with and without the bomb, maybe moribund.

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