“The post-war world has witnessed the commence of several nuclear states. During the Cold War, the United States faced the Soviet Union in a battle of becoming the worlds’ superpower through...Show more“The post-war world has witnessed the commence of several nuclear states. During the Cold War, the United States faced the Soviet Union in a battle of becoming the worlds’ superpower through nuclear means. Today, the United States has new potential nuclear opponents, of which Iran and North Korea pose the most danger to the U.S. To comprehend these threats and the U.S.’s response to those, this thesis examines the difference between the United States’ past nuclear opponent, The Soviet Union, and its current nuclear adversaries, Iran and North Korea. Through an in-depth case study of the former Soviet Union, Iran and North Korea as nuclear adversaries of the United States, this comparative study provides an analysis of the United States’ nuclear opponents and the U.S. response to them. It analyzes the past and current nuclear adversaries based on their regime type, incentives to become a nuclear power and their nuclear relationship to the United States. It concludes that Both Iran and North Korea share different resemblances with the former Soviet Union.Show less
When NATO was established the world was in a different place. The world had seen the use of nuclear weapons in Japan for the first time and was confronted with the devastating consequences of these...Show moreWhen NATO was established the world was in a different place. The world had seen the use of nuclear weapons in Japan for the first time and was confronted with the devastating consequences of these weapons. NATO was established as an Alliance between the United States, Canada, and European countries. Meanwhile, the Cold War had started between the United States on one side and the Soviet Union on the other side. To ensure the safety of the European counterparts, NATO decided to establish the nuclear sharing arrangement that would provide certain countries in Europe with nuclear weapons. The Netherlands is one of these countries. This was in the Netherlands’ own security interests, which are heavily influenced by NATO’s security policies. After the end of the Cold War, there was no direct threat and therefore, no direct need to keep these nuclear weapons. However, the Netherlands has been unable to denuclearize. It will use securitization theory as a theoretical framework to try to understand the denuclearization process. This thesis will analyze the denuclearization debate in the Netherlands and what role nuclear weapons play in Dutch security policy.Show less
The collapse of the Soviet Union, not only marked the end of the Cold War, but also resulted in demise of the Nuclear Peace Proposition. With the absence of one of its key prerequisites, namely...Show moreThe collapse of the Soviet Union, not only marked the end of the Cold War, but also resulted in demise of the Nuclear Peace Proposition. With the absence of one of its key prerequisites, namely bipolar world order, the once prevalent in the academic circles structural realist idea that nuclear deterrence successfully promotes international order, fell into oblivion. Despite of repeated attempts by structural realists to revive the notion that nuclear proliferation plays a crucial role in establishing long-term international peace and stability, both contemporary proponents and critics of deterrence strategies disregard the relevance of the Nuclear Peace Proposition, due to a variety of reasons. This research paper engages the ongoing scholarly debate on the applicability of the theory of nuclear peace to the present-day international sphere and seeks to add to the contested topic by proposing the Nuclear Peace Proposition to be disassociated from bipolarity and instead analyzed through the prism of a newly developed model of power allocation, defined as multi-level polarity. Built upon the classical model of multipolarity, multi-level polarity transcends the parochial outlook on proliferation that exclusively revolves around globalism and envisions two distinct layers of nuclear dissemination. It is on the basis of this innovative approach towards the structure of the present-day international sphere that the capacity of the theory of nuclear peace to decrease interstate conflict is both qualitatively and quantitatively investigated.Show less
