Conflict Theory: Nuclear Power - Coursework Example

Policy Paper 2-Conflict Theory: Nuclear Power Problem Conflict theory emphasizes the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources. Social order is maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources. When consensus exists, it is attributable to people being united around common interests, often in opposition to other groups (Crossman). The thirst for domination is inherited in the blood of every human. Powerful people always try to dominate others. For example, nuclear powers are currently ruling the world. Only few countries such as USA, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and possibly North Korea and Syria are believed to be the nuclear powers at present. Iran is trying to acquire nuclear power. Iran believes that America and Israel like countries are harassing the Arab world and it is necessary for Arab countries to acquire nuclear power to silence the threat from these countries. At the same time, many people believe that nuclear power helps countries to avoid unnecessary wars. For example, India and Pakistan came close to many wars in recent times and international community was successful in avoiding these wars by empowering these nations with respect to the consequences of nuclear wars. At the time of writing this paper, newspaper reports show the threatening message issued by North Korea against South Korea. Moreover, Iran is also issuing warning against enemy countries. On the other side, India and China like countries are trying to use nuclear power for energy needs. In short, nuclear power can be used for constructive as well as destructive purposes. This paper analyses the problems associated with the possession of nuclear power with the help of conflict theory. The causation of the problem with the help of conflict theory On one side, the available resources in this world are exhausting rapidly and on the other side, population growth is taking place rapidly. Thus, the natural resources/ head available for individuals are getting decreased as time goes on. Our society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources such as money, properties, leisure, sexual partners, etc. Only the dominant individuals and groups will get the major share of the natural resources whereas others struggle to get anything even for their survival. In short, society is constructed with unequal systems which may end up in conflicts of different types. “Social conflict entails unsolved political problems. Social conflict is a struggle waged by a group of people for a common cause. There are two main characteristics for social conflicts. First, unlike market-type conflicts, which are carried out within a voluntary exchange framework, social conflicts involve coercive power and domination” (Vahabi, p.-2-3). Until the 1980’s, America and Soviet Union ruled the world. The cold war between these two countries caused many problems in the world in the past. However, none of those conflicts attained the proportion of a war because of the fear of consequences of a nuclear war. Many countries took shelter under the wings if these two nuclear powers to safeguard their interests. For example, India was more aligned towards Soviet Union whereas Pakistan aligned more towards America in the past. However, the destruction of Soviet Union made lot of changes in the global politics. America was emerged as the sole superpower after the destruction of Soviet Union. Even though China is trying to challenge America’s supremacy in global politics and economic matters, American interests are well protected in the world even now. One of the surprising facts about nuclear nations is that they are trying to avoid the spreading of nuclear power. Iran is currently trying to develop nuclear weapons and international community including the present nuclear powers, is trying to prevent these countries from doing so. Iran believes that they have every right to develop nuclear arsenal to counter the threats from Israel and America. On the other hand, America argues that Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power is a threat to global peace and harmony. According to the theory of nuclear deterrence, A can deter B by threatening to use nuclear weapons if B does not act in accordance with A. For successful implementation of deterrence, B has to consider As threat as credible. In case another country possesses nuclear weapons say C, the theory holds that A would be deterred from attacking C, resulting in a deadlock. In addition to this, if C protects B under its “umbrella”, then A would be deterred from attacking B because of the fear of getting attacked by C (Malhotra). As mentioned earlier, India and Pakistan are two of the prominent nuclear powers in South East Asia. The disputes between these two countries are causing problems to global peace and harmony. Many times these two countries came close to a war; however the fear of consequences prevented these two nations from conducting war. It should be noted that India is one of the rapidly emerging economies in the world at present whereas Pakistan is struggling because of terrorism and internal violence. A nuclear war between these two countries will affect both of them drastically and a revival may not be easy for them. The above awareness is preventing these countries from starting a war. On the other hand, Israel is one of the closest allies of America. Arab countries are reluctant in conducting massive strikes against Israel because of their fear of America. They know very well that America may not stay silent in case an Arab country attacks Israel. In the case of nuclear weapons, America has a monopoly. “In August 1945, Japan became the victim of the “ultimate weapon of mass destruction” when the U.S. introduced nuclear weapons into the arena of warfare. This created a situation in which the U.S. was free to threaten other nations without deterrence, while others would be deterred from threatening or attacking the US” (Malhotra). Even though many other countries have nuclear weapons, the quantity of nuclear weapons possessed by all other countries may not come closer to the quantity of nuclear weapons possessed by America alone. Moreover, the destructive power of America’s nuclear weapons is many times bigger than that of the other countries. All these factors are preventing other countries from attacking either America or it allies. In the multi-polar world of today, nuclear power is not just limited to two actors (as assumed in the theory), but is possessed by numerous countries, declared and undeclared. It has been argued that there we numerous instances where US-Soviet relations contributed to “nuclear peace”, and that a bi-polar confrontation made it easier to estimate potential threats. Although this view is contested, it is important to realize that even if this statement is true; such a set-up would not be possible in todays world of multiple nuclear powers, which now include USA, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and possibly North Korea and Syria (Malhotra). It should be noted that majority of the above mentioned nuclear powers are culturally different countries. USA, UK and France have almost similar culture whereas all the other countries have different cultures. It is often said that cultural differences is the major reasons behind the entire conflicts in international politics. Many Islamic countries believe that America and Israel are trying to baptize the Muslim world. On the other hand, China believes that American culture is trying to cause problems to Chinese culture. India’s culture is predominantly Hindu oriented and Indians believe that Pakistan is trying to cause problems in India. One of the interesting facts about these nuclear powers is that conflicts among same cultures are not visible. In other words, USA, UK and France have similar culture and they are maintaining good relations. Syria and Pakistan have Muslim culture and between them, there are no problems. At the same time, one should not forget that North Korea is currently trying to threaten South Korea even though both have almost similar culture. In other words, along with cultural problems, political problems and border disputes can also force nuclear powers to threaten others. In the case of Koreas, North Korea possesses nuclear power and ballistic missile technology whereas South Korea does not have any of these modern technologies. In other words, North Korea enjoys military supremacy over South Korea which motivates them to issue threats and warnings time to time to South Korea. Iran and India like countries always claim that their intention is to use nuclear power for constructive purposes. It is a fact that nuclear power is an answer to the energy crisis facing by many countries. India and all the other nuclear nations have plenty of nuclear power stations. However, the wisdom of using nuclear energy to solve energy crisis is questioned in recent times. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, The Three Mile Island (US – 1979) reactor disaster, The Kyshtym (1957) disaster in a Russian nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, The Windscale nuclear disaster (UK - 1957) etc are some of the examples which remind us the dangers associated with the exploitation of nuclear energy. The recent Fukushima nuclear power station accidents again underlined the consequences of exploiting nuclear energy even for peaceful purposes. Nuclear energy produces a large amount of harmful radioactive waste, around 3 m³ annually from a large nuclear reactor. By 2007, the USA had amassed over 50,000 metric tons of radioactive waste. This waste is dangerously radioactive: it must be stored in safe conditions for as much as 10,000 years to prevent harm to the general public by radiation (Loyn, 2011, p.17). Consequences of the problem The consequences of nuclear war were revealed by America’s nuclear bomb attacks in Japan during Second World War. America used only less powerful nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At present, all nuclear powers have nuclear arsenal with huge destructive power. Many people believe that another nuclear war between any two countries may cause problems not only to the participating countries but also to the external world as well. The gap between the rich and poor is increasing day by day, even though political systems like communism and democracy are trying to reduce it. Class struggle and class conflicts are still realities in this world. Nobody wants to be ruled by others whereas all the people wanted to rule others. Muscle power is helping groups or individuals to silence the resistance of others. Dominant countries or nuclear powers are demonstrating their muscle power with the help of nuclear arsenal. It is impossible for nations without nuclear power to succumb to this pressure all the time. They will also try to acquire nuclear power at any cost. Iran’s and North Korea’s cases are relevant here. The existing nuclear powers on the other hand try to block others from acquiring nuclear arsenal. Thus, nuclear power has the ability to generate social conflicts. Even though nuclear power can be used to solve energy crisis, the environmental problems generated by nuclear power stations cannot be forgotten. A 1,000 megawatt equivalent (MWe) coal plant with optimal pollution abatement equipment will annually emit into the atmosphere 900 tons of sulfur dioxide, 4,500 tons of nitrous oxide, 1,300 tons of particulates, and 6.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. By contrast, a nuclear plant of 1,000 MWe capacity produces annually some 35 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel (Sovacool, 2007, p.107-108). The dumping of nuclear waste produced by nuclear power stations is a big problem for many nations. It is believed that America like nuclear nations is dumping nuclear wastes in the coastal areas of third world countries. It should be noted that unlike other wastes, nuclear wastes have the ability to cause problems even up to thousands of years. Solution to the problem The problems with nuclear power can be solved only with the help of combined effort. It is impossible for one or two countries to solve this issue. All the countries in this world should destroy or deactivate their nuclear arsenal. UN should enforce an embargo on the development of nuclear power. Moreover, UN should force nuclear nations to destroy their nuclear arsenal as soon as possible. It is illogical and unethical to disallow some nations from acquiring nuclear power while allowing others to keep their nuclear arsenal. Instead of nuclear power, other renewable energy sources should be developed and used to counter the energy crisis problems. Solar energy seems to be a viable option for solving present energy crisis. Conclusions To conclude, nuclear power has the ability to increase the gap between nations. Nations with nuclear power or arsenal may use their muscle power to threaten others. Thus the motivation for developing nuclear power may increase among nations without nuclear power technology. Nuclear power is a big threat to global peace and harmony. All the nations should stay away from developing nuclear power, considering its huge destructive power and the class conflicts it can generate among global communities. Works Cited Crossman, Ashley. “Conflict Theory”. Web. 11 March 2013. Loyn, Christopher. “Can Nuclear Power Save the Climate?”. 2011. Young Scientists Journal. 2011. Issue 9. Print Malhotra, Aditi. “Re-examining the Nuclear Deterrence Theory”. 2010. Web. 11 March 2013. Sovacool, Benjamin K. “Coal and Nuclear Technologies: Creating a False Dichotomy for American Energy Policy”. Policy Science (2007) 40:101–122. DOI 10.1007/s11077-007-9038-7 Vahabi, Mehrdad. “A Critical Review of Strategic Conflict Theory and Sociopolitical “Instability Models”. A paraître dans Revue d’Economie Politique, Vol. 119, No. 6, 2009. Read More