Our nation’s nuclear weapons are very complex and large organization system. The main responsibility falls on the executive branch of the government. There are multiple departments within the executive branch that handle this. They are the Departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce, State, and Homeland Security. The Department of Defense oversees all of the nation’s armed forces and this includes those that are specially trained to handle nuclear devices. During the height of the Cold War the leaders of the Department of Defense, constructed a plan to be able to fend off any nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. They came up with what is known as the “Triad.” This Triad is a combination of the Navy’s ballistic missile submarines, the …show more content…
They are responsible for the negotiation of nuclear armament treaties. The main goal of the Department is to limit the manufacturing and spread of nuclear weapons, this practice is known as nonproliferation (White House). This Department has recently been in the news for a proposed nuclear deal with Iran. The deal has yet to be voted upon by Congress, but it is becoming increasingly unpopular with high ranking military officers (Washington Post). The Department of Homeland Security was made by President Bush, in response to the terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001. The main responsibility of this Department is to monitor the activities of incoming travelers and cargo. This can lead to stopping the smuggling of contraband and even nuclear weapons. A subordinate agency of the Department of Homeland Security is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA. FEMA is responsible for coordinating a response to a disaster on U.S. soil; this includes a nuclear detonation (DHS). There are many facets to the way that the United States handles their nuclear program. It is designed to protect the country at all costs; may that be a direct bombing or an attack through the airlines. The United States has covered all points to prevent a nuclear
With agencies like the NEA(Nuclear Energy Agency) keeping an eye on and restricting everything that has to deal with nuclear, waste, materials, and trade, its hard for the U.S. to innovate when everything they attempt is restricted. So How is our country ensuring the safety of our nation and showing that they will have complete control of any nuclear situation that may arise, well a great example would be the Cuban Missile Crisis. During this crisis the United States and Cuba were in a thirteenth day standoff where no man would back down. The United States discovered the nuclear missile on October 4th, 1962 while an American U-2 spy plane was flying over Cuba (history.com). two days later President Kennedy had a meeting to discuss the situation which lasted a total of two weeks. After discussing the situation president kennedy had no choice but to deploy the U.S. Navy and stretch a perimeter around Cuba to make sure no supplies and military aid was sent from the soviets. Once the blockade was established President Kennedy reached out to cuban officials and tried to reason and come to terms without any physical confrontation. after thirteen days U.S. and Cuba came to terms. The agreement was that Cuba would dismantle their missile if the U.S. took their missiles out of Turkey, and that was the end of it. The U.S. government has already
The United States nuclear weapons complex is complicated and very large. Because of this, there are certain government agencies that help to regulate, or control, the nuclear weapons. Those agencies that have a role regarding the nation’s nuclear weapons are the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Commerce, Homeland Security, Department of State (DOS), and most importantly, the Department of Defense (DOD) (whitehouse.gov).
In 21st century, both the United Kingdom and France have recently initiated programs to revitalize their nuclear complexes and maintain their nuclear forces well. What's about in the U.S.? Nuclear forces continue to represent the ultimate deterrent capability that supports U.S. national security. Both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and in Asia, assure allies and friends of the credibility of U.S. security commitments. However, in loophole of the nuclear umbrella agreement, non-nuclear states might develop and deploy their own nuclear capability. U.S. announced
The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a treaty signed by one hundred and ninety states used to slow down the spread of a large number of nuclear weapons while promoting the use of nuclear technologies in peaceful ways such as energy. Its purpose is to keep nuclear technology in “Nuclear States” or trusted countries until a long-term goal of total disarmament can be reached. Even though it tries to bring about nuclear disarmament, the NPT is a threat to the modern world. It is currently speculated that the United States has the most stockpiled Nuclear weapons with Russia being a close second. Each of these countries has “thousands of known stockpiled nuclear weapons with the next closest state having just a few hundred” (Rising Powers
The Department of Defense plays a large role in its responsibility with nuclear weapons. They are assigned with creating policies that aligns with the NPR (Nuclear Posture Review) to minimize the amount of nuclear weapons that are used in our defense (whitehouse.gov). The DOD is responsible for creating a better plan that utilizes more non-nuclear weaponry and strategy for defending our country. They have to maintain plans and procedures for the use of weapons of mass destruction and it be a last resort type weapon. The DOD is responsible for ensuring the safety of these weapons and making sure they stay where they are stored. This department must maintain these guidelines in
To public eye nuclear weapons are considered to be extremely dangerous, thus they should be handled with great caution and precision. However, there are occasions where mistakes have almost led to a nuclear detonation. What is more surprising, such events have taken place here in the United States. In 1961 two nuclear bombs were dropped on a field in North Carolina, luckily detonation did not occur. Nuclear bombs have been left with no supervision on airfields, jets carrying these weapons have exploded or ran off the warship, generals have been relieved from their duties because of mishandling information about nuclear weapons or being very neglectful, and the list goes on. In a complicated system errors will occur, however such errors should be limited to minimum.
The instrument of nuclear deterrence has been the primary reason that no full scale war between major world powers has taken place since WWII. Ensuring the credibility of the United States nuclear arsenal is the best way for the nation to secure future peace. Advances in nuclear physics, computational modeling, and engineering have made full nuclear-explosive testing unnecessary to maintain the nuclear
The Executive departments that have a role in regards to the nation’s nuclear weapons are the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Commerce, Department of State, and Homeland Security. Each of these departments places a large deficit on U.S. budget to ensure that the nation’s security is secure, and not compromised, through nuclear deterrence.
The North Korean government continues to financially fund the research and testing of nuclear and ballistic missiles. Little information is known about the North Korean nuclear program and has been made available to foreign nations due to the secrecy and isolation of international affairs. The threat of a nuclear strike from North Korea has become an increasingly serious matter for many nations including the U.S. and its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. Currently, there are only nine nations known by intelligent analysis that possesses the resources to manufacture nuclear weapons which do include the U.S. However, North Korea is the only nation in the 21st century to conduct a nuclear missile test that has been reported by North Korean
Non-Proliferation policy derives from the Non-Proliferation treaty, “it is an international treaty with the objective to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament”(UNODA) . First signed in 1968, the treaty officially began in 1970. as agreed in the treaty, after 25 years there was a meeting which concluded with the extension of the Non proliferation treat indefinitely. The treaty has open knowledge of 5 states holding nuclear-weapons and of their exact quantities they are; the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China and France these are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Non proliferation treaty is split into two articles. Article 1 with regard to the nuclear positive states and their agreements, Article 2 states the course for the Non nuclear states.
The Executive branch is under the power of the President of the United States, who also acts as head of state Commanding chief of the armed forces. The President appoints the heads of the federal agencies. The agencies involved in …. of nuclear weapons include the Department of Homeland Security Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Commerce, and the Department of Energy.
The United States’ nuclear weapons complex is large and complicated. The agencies involved in varying aspects of nuclear weapons issues include the Departments of Energy, Defense, State, Commerce, and Homeland Security. The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration is the principal U.S. Government agency responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of U.S. nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy was established by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 in response to the energy crisis affecting the country during his term in office. While many Americans identify nuclear weapons with the Department of Defense, the role of which will be discussed, the Department of Energy inherited responsibility for all nuclear
There is a huge expense in maintaining and building the nuclear arms that we use for deterrence. Nuclear information is secret, taking great amounts of money and time, to research and keep it confidential. Power is gained from the research and development, which is definitely worth the expense. The great amounts of money spent on nuclear technology help ensure the security of the people of the United States. It takes huge amounts of money to have the edge in nuclear technology. However, nuclear deterrence is even cheaper than war. The cost of building, operating, and maintaining nuclear weapons is only $26.7 billion per year (Hellman). "This is significantly less than the cost of the 1991 [Persian Gulf] war, which came to nearly $80 billion" (Dobbs). Deterrence is economically and politically intelligent.
It has now been seven years since the President gave his speech in Prague. A year after his speech, in April 6 2010, the Obama administration released a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). The NPR emphasizes on the need to counter nuclear proliferation and terrorism and stresses on keeping other countries from acquiring Nuclear weapons. It also reduces the role of Nuclear
Several hundred Soviet, nuclear tipped, ballistic missiles streak towards the United States without any form of opposition or challenge to their impeding destruction. The result of a situation like this would be no doubt disastrous, but it is a situation that could very well take place if the United States does not install a national ballistic missile defense program. An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system is a precaution that the American government must pursue with all of its resources in order to protect and preserve our society as we know it.