FREE ESSAY ON ARMS CONTROL

ARMS CONTROL

Arms Control
Arms control is a major issue facing the nations of the world today. The concept that a
war today could destroy every living thing doesn't sit well with many people. So to
control weapons and what nations have these weapons will help control war. With problems
with Nuclear weapons, Biological, chemical, and small arms we need to control them to
help curve the problem.
There are five nuclear weapon states in the world. They are the United States, Russia,
France, United Kingdom, and China. Currently there are no international laws banning
nuclear weapons, but their bans on testing these weapons. There is a treaty to ban
nuclear testing world wide, to establish inspections, and establish a network of
monitoring stations to identify these situations (United Nations Handout). Thus far, not
all forty-four of the countries with nuclear capabilities have signed, therefore making
it null and void. Until we can come to agreement on this issue the issue of resolving the
other weapons will be hard to come by.
Chemical and biological weapons are the next item for the world to tackle. There are more
than sixteen nations with these weapons. Some of which are Russia, India, China, and
Israel. There is a Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the use stockpile,
development, production, and sale of these weapons. More than seventy nations have
ratified it. There are five nations that have neither taken part in talks nor signed the
agreement. They are Egypt, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, and Syria. The problem with
controlling chemical weapons is that many of the agents that are used are used in
everyday items. Phosphoric oxychloride, which is used in insecticides, gasoline additives
and flame-retardants, is an item in question. These are items we must curtail to lessen
or stop the threat of a chemical and biological war. 
The issue of land mines and small arms is a huge issue to tackle. For the simple reason
that they are both easy to conceal. Land mines kill 800 people around the world a month.
There about one hundred million active anti-personnel mines around the world in about
seventy nations. This is a huge problem, because most of the people being killed are
innocent people. The conflicts that they were used for have been over for years and
either the military can't find them or don't have the capabilities to remove them. There
has been a treaty submitted to more than one hundred nations for ratification, were there
is a good chance that they will pass. It would make signers of the treaty to stop develop
and deployment of anti-personnel mines. The United States has stated that they will not
sign it, because we need them to protect American security. The problem with that is the
area in question is along the North and South Korea border. So maybe we need to look at
the broader picture and not at what we think is best for us. With the issue of small arms
is that they are small and easy to conceal. They are fairly cheap and available. So the
issue of small arms is a hard one to tackle, which may never be solved.
In conclusion the issue of arms control is a hard one to tackle. Like life not everyone
will be satisfied. We as a world must need to come to a general understanding of what we
all need to do. Whether or not we recognize a nation as having weapons they are going
have them regardless. We should limit what each country should have. That is as far as we
should go. We can't stop anyone from doing anything. We can only hope to contain them.