The History of The Atomic Bomb

[00:00:00]It's a hot take. Some say nuclear weapons are a good thing. Long before they existed, scholars argued that industrial warfare would become so destructive that war itself would become irrational. Fast forward to 1945 and the US flattens two cities introducing the most destructive weapon the world has ever seen. It changed warfare forever.

[00:00:21]The Soviet Union quickly got their own bomb, too. Nuclear tests became demonstrations of power. Hundreds were conducted in the Pacific where especially indigenous populations [music] suffered from the fallout. Right from the beginning, the United Nations advocated abolishing nuclear weapons.

[00:00:37]Starting a nuclear conflict would entail unacceptable consequences, which is in fact precisely why nations still have nuclear weapons today. It's what strategists call deterrence. Has it worked? The Cold War powers fought indirectly from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan and Angola. Proxy wars claimed millions of lives while the superpowers avoided fighting each other.

[00:00:59]Meanwhile, the bomb spread. And for some nations, the news that they had the bomb was much more controversial than for others. The 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty recognized five states as the only nuclear weapon states under the treaty. It created disincentives for other states to obtain nukes. India never signed the treaty and developed a nuclear arsenal. Then Pakistan, which didn't sign up either, got its own bomb. Israel, another non-signatory, maintains a policy of ambiguity. There's widespread consensus that it has nuclear weapons despite neither confirming nor denying it.

[00:01:31][music] Apartheid South Africa saw itself isolated and developed nuclear arms, but gave up its nukes when apartheid ended and international relations profoundly changed. North Korea ignored the treaty following their Juche ideology of self-reliance and using nuclear weapons to deter any attack on the Kim dynasty. So ultimately, nukes were a way to ensure nobody messed with you, but that logic is increasingly being tested. During the Falklands War, the UK [music] initially sent nuclear-armed warships to deter Argentina. Even more remarkable are the repeated [music] clashes between India and Pakistan, but no conflict since World War has gone nuclear. Iran's nuclear capabilities have been the source of much geopolitical tension.

[00:02:13][music] Some analysts argue a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat, in particular to Israel, whom they have [music] threatened to wipe off the map.

[00:02:20]After the Cold War, the United States and Russia signed the START treaties, requiring both superpowers to reduce their stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons. Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, but gave them up in exchange for security guarantees. Russia suspended participation in New START in 2023. The treaty expired in 2026 without a successor. For the first time in decades, there are no binding limits on the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. Although 191 countries [music] joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear arsenals are once again growing.

[00:02:54]Are nukes an effective deterrent, or are we heading faster than ever towards nuclear war?