should the us reduce its amount of nukes?

FuManChu said:

Personally I would like to see the US and Russia, as the powers with by far the most warheads, engage in another round of talks to reduce their stockpiles. I don't think we'll see the end of nuclear weapons in our lifetime, but if we are to stop proliferation, the big powers need to show they're serious about reducing their arsenals. Currently I see no real reason why either Moscow or Washington need so many warheads, regardless of whether they're in "reserve" or not.

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Frankly I think partial nuclear disarmament is like talking about partial circumcision. You either go all the way or forget about it. It's not as if "only" having 100 nukes will make the world safer. The fact that big powers are reluctant to even decrease the amount of nuclear warheads they have (let alone eliminate them) does not make for a very convincing argument against smaller countries that want a quick fix towards global influence via nuclear power.

The_Zergling said:

Frankly I think partial nuclear disarmament is like talking about partial circumcision. You either go all the way or forget about it. It's not as if "only" having 100 nukes will make the world safer. The fact that big powers are reluctant to even decrease the amount of nuclear warheads they have (let alone eliminate them) does not make for a very convincing argument against smaller countries that want a quick fix towards global influence via nuclear power.

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No one is going to disarm completely right now, but there's no reason why these sorts of things can't happen in stages. It's too much to expect countries to get rid of nukes all in one go. Maybe future generations will get to that point if we take the first steps.

Also you rather made my point for me - how can we stop proliferation if we won't even reduce our stockpiles? Shouldn't we at least try in the hope it might change attitudes? It's not as if the US or Russia actually benefits from having so many nukes.

The more nukes that the US makes the more eager China is trying to catch up both in quantity and quality. This would soon lead to another cold war. If the US would reduce there nukes, i think China would feel less threaten to protect itself and reduce the race on producing nukes. Or maybe the opposite could happen. Really who knows what would happen.