ABSTRACT
The threat and fear of global nuclear destruction have been with people since Hiroshima. The yield of the most powerful weapons has increased a thousandfold since Hiroshima, and means of precise delivery anywhere on the globe have emerged. Tactical nuclear weapons are particularly useless and threatening. The reductions may in part be compensated by modernizations and technological improvements of the weapons. The proponents of a nuclear-weapon-free world believe that minimum deterrence is a nuclear posture inviting disaster. Nuclear weapons are often defended with the claim that they have prevented war in Europe. The perceived minimum level of weapons is then based on the need to deter nuclear blackmail and to confront possible evasion of the treaties limiting nuclear weapons. In the confrontations between the nuclear powers and nonnuclear states, nuclear weapons have been irrelevant. Nuclear-weapon laboratories and nuclear tests also facilitate proliferation.
