It would be a symptom of it, but not necessarily a cause. It is reasonable to claim that without mutually assured destruction, the Cold War could have been a warm one.
Of course, in a peaceful world, who needs nukes. But is this world peaceful yet?
Of course, in a peaceful world, who needs nukes. But is this world peaceful yet?
There is zero commitment from the major nuclear powers for an eventual complete denuclearization, the only thing they agree about is that they should be the only ones having nuclear weapons. As long as this hypocritical game goes on, the world will gain more, not less, nuclear states.
And we'll keep hearing this tune: "The world is too dangerous to aim for complete denuclearization, look, country X just became nuclear illegally by breaking [bullshit nuclear treaty we designed to keep our geopolitical edge]".
The nuclear powers agreed as part of the 1970 treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly article 6, that they would pursue a complete nuclear disarmament. Of course, they have not fulfilled their obligations over the past half century and non-nuclear powers have complained about this, and the International Court of Justice agreed with them in 1996. A UN resolution in 1999 condemned the US for restarting a nuclear race - only the US, Israel, Albania and Micronesia voted against it. Bush withdrew from the ABM treaty in 2002. The US has been in a nuclear arms race since then.
Even personally I feel saver knowing other countries are able to defend them self, making it less likely to end up as collateral damage for the US democratisation process.
I say this as an Israeli who has genuine concern for my children's well being. Iran has legitimate nuclear ambitions. The chain leading up to those ambitions is difficult for some people to admit, and the direction that those ambitions are pushing Iran may very well harm my family. But I don't blame the Iranians themselves for the position that they are in.
That's the worst case scenario for me. Compared to (!) that, this is how I feel about climate change and nuclear war:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/there-will-come-soft-rai...
There's also voluntary extinction (vhemt.org), of course, but that's not really a "cause".
CND et al never campaigned for the Soviets to disarm, for them it was always about clearing the way for a Soviet expansion westwards.
I beg your pardon?
I'm not going to bother granting you a response, you seem to have a political axe to grind and I don't do political flame wars.