The possession of nuclear weapons has conferred on certain states a situation of impunity without precedent, according to professor Inmaculada C. Marrero Rocha, author of the book which has just been published by the University of Granada with the title: “Nuclear weapons and proliferator countries.”
According to the author of this book, “the capacity of nuclear weapons as a mean to transform the situation of each state in the power hierarchy is enormous.” The book is the fruit of a research work which analyses the causes for the increase in the number of nuclear states, a phenomenon also known as «horizontal nuclear proliferation».
The attractiveness of nuclear weapons for the states still resides, nowadays, in its qualitative and quantitative value, superior to any other type of armament for two basic reasons: for its double condition of political and defensive instrument and its deterrent capacity, which is apparent in a tendency to wage hypothetic or preventive wars instead of real ones, taking into account the irreversible and immeasurable a nuclear conflict between countries would cause.
“This phenomenon –says Inmaculada C. Marredo Rocha—is a most current sign of the revolution in the field of studies on security and defence, since the moment that nuclear weapons appeared in the international scene as an incomparable tool of military and political nature, capable of conditioning and modifying intergovernmental relations and substantially increasing the risks and threats for international peace and security”.
Guaranteed national security
According to professor Inmaculada C. Marredo Rocha, “the destructive capacity of nuclear weapons –which does not distinguish between neutral or not-neutral territories, against which there is not any possible protection for civil population and environment, and puts an end to the classic relation between victors and vanquished, due to its potentially definitive consequences which could even lead to the total destruction of the planet – has simultaneously turned nuclear weapons into an incomparable threat for international security and an also incomparable guarantee for the national security of the states possessors or beneficiaries of this kind of armament”.
The question of nuclear armament is positioned in the core of the dialectic between national and international security, as concepts which are not necessarily compatible or complementary. The requirements of national security can be, in principle, satisfactorily met with the possession of nuclear weapons, but the possession of these weapons by a higher or lower number of states and the threat of their eventual use is the main concern as regards international security. It is hardly surprising that horizontal nuclear proliferation is not a really recent concern, as since the 2nd World War there is a growing tension between the interests showed by a considerable number of states to possess this kind of armament and the wish of others to avoid nuclear proliferation.
“Such tension –maintains Inmaculada C. Marredo Rocha—became especially apparent, during the period of the Cold War although, when it finished, horizontal nuclear proliferation is still one of the main fears as regards international security, due to the different scope and nature gained by this phenomenon as a consequence of the features of its new main figures and the change in the security parameters it is based on. For this reasons, it study has achieved more and more interest in the last decade, although in a first moment some thought that the end of bipolarity would contribute to the removal of the nuclear threat”.
Reference: Professor Inmaculada Marrero Rocha.
Department of Public International Law and International Relations.
University of Granada.
Phone number: 958 248581 – 243459.
E-mail: marrero@ugr.es
