Arms Race Can Ensure World Stability
Man’s intelligence is of no question the most powerful weapon ever created. With it and his relentless desire for power and wealth, he endeavors to invent and develop as deadly weapon as he possibly can so as to destroy his opponents. The nations having such weapons, particularly atomic bomb are deemed to be the world’s superpowers. As a result, the most affluent countries attempt to compete for military power, which leads to arms race, the situation in which two or more countries try to have more and stronger weapons than each other. Although there seems to be a contradiction that invention of weapons prevents the outbreak of war, arms race can be an effective mean to ensure world stability if we examine the facts about cold war in the past and present superpowers.
When each country reaches the zenith of weapon making, arms race will bring about mutual destruction if they attack each other. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that war will arise. The occurrence of cold war between US and Soviet Union, from 1947 to 1991, personified that even though both countries had hostile relations with each other on account of a complete difference of political ideology, democracy and communism, and competition of weaponry, there was no eruption of war between the two countries at that time. Then in 1991, cold war ended as the Soviet Union suffered from the economic downturn as well as the fragmentation of communism and could no longer afford the cost of the arms race. The bottom line was that if the fight broke out, they gained nothing but destruction. Instead of combating, they rather spent money on the military so that they could upgrade their weaponry and become the world power; this was killing two birds with one stone. The confrontation between the two superpowers, U.S and the Soviet Union, in the arms race led to world peace and stability.
Once the countries in arms race achieve a condition that if an attack breaks out, there will be a complete annihilation of the nations, the balance of power among them will be established. The equal strength of the military among them also induces the balance of terror. Then invasion and war will be virtually impossible to take place. For instance, France, UK, China, US, and Russia all have atomic bombs, and those countries still try to discover hi-tech and more powerful weapon. The arms races among those superpowers are not as obvious as during the cold war, they are going all out for founding the most cutting-edge weapon making though. Economically and politically, they are also strong alliance.
On the contrary, there are many aspects of society that can be developed and improved using the money spent on the military such as education, health care and infrastructure. For example, the developed countries may provide a certain fund to help the third world countries in terms of education, for the county whose population make up of almost all educated people is less prone to war. World stability can be achieved not only by outdoing each other for the most lethal weapon but also by distributing wealth throughout social classes.
In conclusion, even though the purpose of making weapon in either bygone or present era is for war, it also provides a conducive environment for peace and world stability. Since human greed no knows boundaries, it is logical that the nations should equip itself with weaponry not to invade others but to protect its own sovereignty. By doing this, world stability will be ensured because being abused and invaded is neither peace nor stability.