Nuclear disarmament: USA and the Soviet Union : 1960-2002

AbstractIII-essay in political science by Christoffer Harnell, autumn -08. Supervisor: Malin Stegman-McCallion. ”Nuclear Disarmament - USA and the Soviet Union 1960-2002” This essay is about USA and the former Soviet Union and their nuclear disarmament. The purpose is to explain why and when the two states begun their nuclear disarmament, as well as what caused the start of the process. The essay investigates how well the two states have followed the NPT-Treaty’s article of nuclear disarmament. The article says that the states who have signed the NPT-treaty shall work for an disarmament of their nuclear weapons. The arguments are that a state’s nuclear disarmament starts because of a previous action or happening, the new development of a disarmament-theory, the essay aims to proove this.Both the United States of America and the Soviet Union show evidence that they have started their nuclear disarmament after a previous action. USA started their nuclear disarmament in the period 1966-70 because of the former American minister of security Robert McNamara and his U-turn in the aggressive war politic and the former president Nixon and his ambition to lower the heat between USA and the Soviet union by signin the ABM-Treaty. The Soviet Union started their nuclear disarmament many years later in the period of 1986-1987, the cause of this, it is believed, is the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl and the former president of the Soviet Union Michail Gorbatjov’s ambitions to end the war in the world and disarm the nuclear weapons, not just between USA and the Soviet Union, but in all states. USA has followed the NPT-Treaty’s article of nuclear disarmament well, one reason for this is that, they started the disarmament before they signed the NPT-Treaty in 1968. The Soviet Union, however, has followed the NPT-treatys article of nuclear disarmament less well and did not start their nuclear disarmament until 1986-87, even though they signed up for the NPT-Treaty in 1968. The NPT-Treaty will probably still be relevant in the future for the nuclear disarmament, but how well the world’s states will follow it, the future will tell. The nuclear disarmament in this two states has been caused by a previous action and the new developed disarmament-theory is avaliable for further disarmament research