The fourteen impact of nuclear weapons on international relations:
1. Impact on International Power Structure:
The emergence of nuclear weapons has been a source of a big impact on the international power structure. Initially, the U.S. monopoly over the atomic weapons definitely made it the most powerful nation in the world. Later on, when the USSR was also successful in breaking the atom and in securing nuclear weapons, it led to the emergence and strengthening of bipolarity in international relations. With the extension of the nuclear club, as a result of the entry of Britain, France and China, the bipolar power structure got transformed into a multipolar structure. Nuclear weapons acted as a determinant of the power status of the two rival blocs of powers in the era of Cold War (1945-90).
2. A Dangerous dimension to Cold War during 1995-90:
In the era of cold war, the nuclear weapons acted as a determinant of the relations between the USA and USSR. During the Second World War, the refusal of the USA to share the atomic secret with the USSR made the latter immensely annoyed with the former. Later on, the Soviet decision to break the US monopoly over the atomic secret became a factor in the cold war that emerged in international relations. The emergence of nuclear armament race between the two super powers greatly intensified the cold war in 1950s and it continued to be a major factor of international relations of the cold war period.
3. Overkill capacity of the Nuclear Powers:
While power scarcity was the hall-mark of the era of traditional international system, power-surplus came to be distinguishing characteristic of the post-war international system. For the first time the nations with nuclear weapons came to acquire the overkill capacity, i.e., the capacity to destroy the entire world several times.
Both the USA and USSR came to have in their possessions a large amount of overkill capacity and this fact made them super global actors capable of achieving their interests in the world even in complete disregard to the opinion and wishes of other states. Both began successfully using intervention as a means of imposing their wishes on small nations.
This overkill capacity induced a sense of fear among the small and weak states. Max Lerner characterised the cold war age as the “age of overkill” and observed that this development played a big role in the emergence of the new post-war international system as a system characterised by power surplus.
4. Defencelessness of the Non-nuclear States:
Against the overkill capacity of the nuclear powers, the non-nuclear states came to live in a state of “defencelessness”. They found themselves quite helpless in securing their interests vis- a-vis the nuclear powers. They found it difficult to protect their people from the nuclear threat posed by the nuclear powers. They had no means to confront the threat of nuclear blackmail that the nuclear nations could pose to their security and interests.
5. Change in the concept of War:
The birth of nuclear weapons changed the character of war from a simple war to a total war. It virtually eliminated the gap between military personnel’s and the civilians, or between the combatants and non-combatants. A modern war could be nuclear war and a totally destructive war after which there could be no victor and no vanquished.
The change in the concept of war gave rise to a situation in which no state could hope to use the traditionally accepted laws of war as laid down by International Law. The whole concept of the Laws of War appeared to have become redundant in the era of total war.
Moreover, the nuclear weapons, coupled with highly advanced computer technology now made the modern war a machine war in which the role of soldiers appeared to have become much less than what it used to be in the pre-nuclear age. The change in the concept of war from a simple war to a total war acted as a factor responsible for a decline in the role of nation-state. N-weapons created a MAD situation in international relations.
6. A new basis of National Power:
In the pre-nuclear age, geography, population, natural resources and industrial capacity constituted the major elements of the national power of a state. In the nuclear age, nuclear technology, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons came to be the very important factors of national power. Today even a small state can, by acquiring nuclear technology and weapons, can become a formidable power in international relations.
7. Difficulty in the use of Power:
While on the one hand, the nuclear age made available to the nuclear nations a surplus of power, on the other hand, it has made the actual exercise of power international relations very difficult. The transformation of the conventional military power into nuclear military power has proved to be a source of limitation.
After the first use of two atomic bombs in 1945, there was fortunately made no further use of nuclear weapons in actual practice. These made it difficult for the policy makers of a nation to regard the use of nuclear weapons as a real possibility. The strong public opinion against nuclear weapons and the highly dangerous possibility of an escalation of a limited war into a full and totally destructive nuclear war prevented the states to plan for a use of nuclear weapons in actual practice.
The USA failed to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam and had to withdraw from it. Likewise, the (erstwhile) USSR failed to achieve its desired objective in Afghanistan. Indeed, the emergence of nuclear weapons confused the statesmen. They had the means but they did not know whether they could actually use these or not. The exercise of power in international relations indeed became very difficult and complex.
8. Decline of Balance of Power:
The classical international system was characterised by balance of power. Several powerful European states maintained a certain balance in their power relations and whenever any nation tried to upset the balance by aggression or by accumulating a disproportionately large power for itself, the other nations or another nation took remedial measures, including the use of force or war, for reducing the power of such a state and for restoring the balance of power.
Throughout 1815-1914 period, balance of power acted as a regulator of international relations. In the nuclear age, the emergence of nuclear powers along with the presence of non-nuclear nations made it very difficult, for the balance of power to get operationalized in international relations.
No preponderance of power could be created against any nuclear power. Even a super power found it difficult to create a balance of power against the other through the use of force or war because such a step could have led to its own destruction. Thus, the nuclear age rendered the Balance of Power inoperative principle in international relations.
9. Balance of Terror in International Relations:
The development of highly destructive nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction was responsible for creating a balance of terror in international relations. The fear of total destruction acted as a blessing is disguise in so far as it checked the states from thinking in terms of war. The fear generated by the nuclear weapons resulted into a precarious balance (of terror) in international relations and this indirectly helped the process of preservation of peace.
“The balance of terror or mutual deterrence means simply a situation where two(or more) opposing nations are sufficiently frightened of one-another that neither is willing to risk any action that would provoke a military attack by the other.”—A.F.K. Organski
In the age of balance of terror, the nuclear nations fear one another so much that each of them has become anxious to avoid war a blessing in disguise!
10. Change in the role of Diplomacy:
The difficulty in the use of nuclear weapons in a way reduced the importance of threat of war in the exercise of diplomatic negotiations. Diplomacy can depend upon the use of threat of force or war as a means for securing the desired objectives of its foreign policy. However, the virtual unusable character of power based on nuclear weapons reduced the credibility of such a threat of force in diplomatic negotiations. Diplomacy now finds it difficult to use the threat of war (total war) as a means for securing its objectives.
11. A new peace in International Relations:
The existence of nuclear weapons in international relations undoubtedly gave a new meaning to the concept of peace. Previously, peace was regarded as a positive condition of mutual goodwill friendship and cooperation. As against this, peace in the nuclear age came to be “a peace in the shadow of terror.”. It came to be a negative peace i.e. a peace imposed by technology. It became a peace in the form of a balance of terror and a peace of preparedness for a total war, a tense peace, and a peace characterised by fear, inequalities, risks and distrust.
12. Difficulties in the way of Disarmament:
The impact of nuclear weapons on the objective of disarmament and arms control was paradoxical, both helpful and unhelpful at the same time. The emergence of a big nuclear arms race compelled the humankind to think and work more in favour of preserving international peace and security.
It gave strength to the demand for disarmament and arms control as a possible means for securing this objective. It compelled the states to work for securing disarmament and arms control. However, on the other hand, the emergence of nuclear weapons and arms race made the negotiations for disarmament and arms control highly complex, confusing and problematic. The issue of disarmament came to be the problem of disarmament in the nuclear age.
13. Decline of the Nation-State:
The nuclear age produced a big change in the operation of nation-state system. Traditionally, a state acted as a sovereign institution responsible for the exercise of supreme power over all its people and places with a view to provide protection from internal anarchy or disorders and external aggression or war.
Its justification as the custodian of supreme power stood based upon its ability to provide security to its citizens. In the nuclear age, however, the nation-state found itself incapable of defending its people against a possible nuclear war. Many scholars like Prof. Herz, advocate the view that nuclear weapons together with other factors have made the nation state and its sovereignty obsolete.
14. Threat of Nuclear Hegemony and Blackmail:
The emergence of N-weapons and the monopoly of some states over these became responsible for the emergence of nuclear hegemony and a threat of nuclear blackmail in international relations. The nuclear powers gained the ability to use “threat of n-weapons” for securing their national interests in international relations.
They got the ability to use the threat of nuclear war for securing their desired objectives in relations with non-nuclear states. Further, these impelled them to maintain their n-power superiority and to prevent non-nuclear states from securing n- weapons and n-technology. They kept on developing and expanding their nuclear power and at the same time always tried to prevent non-nuclear states from securing it in the name of world peace.
Moscow Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Non-prodification Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) were all governed by this hidden desire. The issue of n-proliferation vs Non-proliferation emerged as major issue in international relations and even today it continues to a hot issue.
The above account clearly shows that the emergence of nuclear weapons materially affected the nature and content of international relations. The nuclear weapons were responsible for making the international system almost totally different from the classical international system.
Nuclear weapons can now be legitimately described as the major factor of international relations. During 1945-90 the nuclear weapons influenced the politics of cold war. These kept the securing of disarmament and arms control highly complex and problematic and un-successful exercise. These became responsible for creating a balance of terror in international relations.
Even today nuclear weapons constitute a major determinant of relations between nuclear powers and non-nuclear nations. The USA has been maintaining its status as a sole surviving super power with a high level of nuclear capability, but at the same time it is forcing other states to sign treaties like the NPT and CTBT. In-fact all the P-5 states (Five recognized N- powers) want the non-nuclear powers to accept non-proliferation require. The politics of nuclear weapons forms an important dimension of contemporary international relations.