Global Nuclear Warfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global Nuclear Warfare - Essay Example As Franklin Delano Roosevelt has stated in his inaugural speech - the only thing we have to fear is the fear itself. During the Cold War that followed, ideological conflicts were often conducted through the medium of fear. While some politicians argued for expanding arms expenditure by raising alarm about the threat of communism, others demanded disarmament and appealed to the public's fear of nuclear weapons. However, the promotion of competing alarmist claims is very different to the situation in the past (Furedi). The abuse of fear is a high stake politics. The worldview of citizens during the Cold War era has primarily been shaped by alteration between concepts of realism and idealism. These two general approaches in the American foreign policy, dealing with the international sphere, are most explicitly reflected in the foreign policy doctrines. As professor Furedi puts it, the fear has fast become a caricature of itself, it was no longer simply an emotion or a response to the perception of threat; it has become a cultural idiom through which we signal a sense of unease about our place in the world (Furedi). The beginning of the post bipolar era emerged ... First, the collapse of Soviet Union, that secured at least the ideological domination of the United States. Second, the Iraq intervention, that demonstrated the reality of the terrorist thread to the world security, but the thread of the nuclear warfare remained, and so did the fear in the heads of most people. A brilliant indicator of the perception of the world by general public through the optics of the global nuclear warfare is the Doomsday clock, that attain a significant respect and prestige in forming the public opinion since the very start of the global nuclear thread. The Doomsday Clock, symbolic clock on the University of Chicago wall shows the time left till the outbreak of global nuclear war and the end of the world that would follow. Over the last sixty years the fingers have moved - forward and backwards - only eighteen times. Recently on few days ago, two minutes closer to the nuclear apocalypse: they stopped at five minutes to twelve. The last time we, and the world, were this close to the definite destruction was in 1984. Any sensationalists or fanatic peace activists have not invented this final countdown. Doomsday Clock - the "Apocalypse Clock" as it has been nicknamed with popularity - have been designed by top nuclear scientists associated in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the prestigious scientific board, or convocation, that is in charge of the decision of whether to move the fingers or not. On its latest session that decided to move the fingers world famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has participated. The first time D oomsday Clock were introduced to the public was short after the end of World War II, in 1947 and were set on seven minutes to twelve. The "midnight" symbolizes