what gives a country the right to own or develop nuclear weapons?

Question

and what gives a country the right to decide which counties could and could not have nuclear powers?
personally, i hope all the WMDs in the world would be destroyed but we all know thats not going to happen.
i think its a great hypocracy that a country like israel, which bashed all of the UN resolutions against it, and is in the mid east, a very volatile region, can have nuclear weopons and the world expects countries like iran to abandon nuclear programs.
its fair for other mid east countries to get nuclear programs just to create a balance of power.

Answer 1

Might makes right.

Many countries have a capacity to develop nuclear weapons and choose not to.

Italy, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Japan all could make such weapons, but choose not to for a variety of reasons.

The world becomes very nervous about an unstable regime that shows an interest in these technologies.

If Canada does not need nuclear weapons, why does Iran or North Korea?

If the USA challenged the USSR toe to toe, eye to eye when both sides had THOUSANDS of nukes, what makes these crappy little countries think they will strike the Americans dead with fear if they have only one or two?

Because they are insane.

What do you do with a crazy man with a gun? Talk or Shoot?

Answer 2

Below is what I posted for a similar question:

"The International Policy is called the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It simply states that countries that have Nuclear Weapon Technology will not allow that technology or knowledge of that technology to be used by other governments or agents.

The overall goal is to eliminate Nuclear Weapons in their entirety from the Earth and only use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes like power generation.

The United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China are the only countries with weapons that have signed the NPT.

The reason to keep the technology from others is that countries like North Korea have a will to use them, have shown aggressive tendancies in the past and are more likely to actually detonate a nuclear device in anger instead of showing caution. The big deal about NK right now is that they show ill will toward all of its neighboring countries, except China, and none of those countries wants to be hit by a nuclear weapon. The new NK missile threat towards the US is the same, we don't want to get hit by one, and no one knows Kim Jong Il's intentions nor do we know what he places on top of those missiles. If his government were more open toward the rest of the world and we knew the purpose was peaceful, we would not be as aprehensive to the test missile launches because we (The world at large) would know when they would be launched, its intended purpose, and its desired landing spot. All things that other countries that launch missiles tell other countries so they don't become disturbed. If the US was to launch a test missile into the Pacific Ocean without telling the Chinese or Russians, they might perceive it as an act of war, that we were attempting to launch missiles at them. Instead we tell them what we are launching (Space Probe) where we are launching from (Vandenburg AFB California), when the launch will happen (1 July at 1600L) and how was are launching it (Delta V Rocket). This helps keep the peace between countries that have the power to destroy the world."

The ultimate balance of power is supposed to be a world without Nuclear Weapons.

Answer 3

The issue here is nations Sovereignty that gives the the rights to build and arm their respective militaries as the political leaders see fit. Due to treaty's originating from the United Nations many smaller and underdeveloped countries earlier signed the non_proliferation treaty thinking that ability to come upon the resources to devolop these weapons was impossible. This the reason we have requested they stop the developement of the technology they previous promissed not to do. simple huh?

Answer 4

They should never be in the hands of trigger happy North Vietnamese (even though they are) and the likes of Iran. How long has the US had them, they haven't been used in a war since WWll. Don't you think if USA was evil they could have taken over by now? The USA uses it's military power (but not enough) The crap in Iraq should be over-should have been over-but, anti-American citizens slow the process with their indecisive democratic lobbies. Bush has done himself in worrying about what the weaker half would say, that's his real fault, trying to please the whiners, in order to help the republican party in the upcoming elections. America should have backed him more strongly after 9/11-but we do have enormous amounts of illegals here (thanks to the democrats) so, what do you expect?

Answer 5

The general consensus seems to be a matter of trust.... what is the ONLY country to ever use nuclear weapons? hint: it was used on civilian populations, twice. How is that trust issue now?

Answer 6

Woah woah woah....

Soooo waitaminute. If a country doesn't have oil they have a right to develop nuclear weapons? WHAT?

For a commercial reactor, Uranium needs to be enriched to 5%, tops. FIVE PERCENT.

Weapons grade Uranium typically exceeds 90% enrichment.

Why on EARTH would anyone need to develop technology for 90+% enriched uranium if they just need a fuel source?

Answer 7

You got a right to nuclear if you don't don't have oil! But if you have oil and want nuclear weapons, you can't have any. Pure and simple. However if you like to rock the boat, just cut back on your oil production and get richer! That's another form of "nuclear weapon".

Answer 8

If the other nations see there is no threat for a country to Develop
a nuclear weapon you are allowed to do so

Answer 9

I think it may have something to do with the fact that isreal is less likely to attack with nukes then a country like iran. Who should be allowed to have them? I dont think anyone needs them.

Answer 10

That's the funny thing about international politics. "International Law" is pretty much voluntary.

Nobody in power wants a balance of power.