The United States is the world’s foremost nuclear power in both technology and inventory. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists the United States has 2122 deployed nuclear weapons and a total inventory of 7352 nuclear devices, well outmatching any opponent in both nuclear inventory and technology (US Nuclear Arsenal). Personally I am in favor of decommissioning weapons on an equal basis instead of removing them altogether. Taking a diplomatic approach, the United States could angle to diminish the number of nuclear weapons other countries possess and through negotiation keep an amount greater than our most equipped opponents, thus maintaining our dominance in the nuclear realm. Getting all countries on opposing sides to comply may be the greatest challenge of President Obama’s plan to remove nuclear weapons from the world. We also don’t want to trigger another arms race or want to destabilize our security while removing them. We need to ensure other countries or groups such as ISIS not currently holding nuclear weapons do not build them without our knowledge. With a smaller nuclear arsenal the US would be better positioned to argue that other countries do not need any weapons, or even a nuclear weapon program. Without us downsizing our nuclear weapons stores how can we expect the rest of the world to comply? Even maintaining and modernizing the weapons we currently have is considered developing new nuclear weapons, and we don’t know what the continued cost of our ‘modernization’ could be. It’s a dangerous game to play.

The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal: A Dangerous Vestige of the Cold War. (2014, February 1). Retrieved October 12, 2014, from www.ucsusa.org/arsenalrecs