So I gave you my best-case scenario yesterday for a nuclear free world. Now within that scenario, here are a few things that could go wrong. First and foremost, what if one of the powers with a strong economic foundation decides to break the treaty? For example China routinely stores up vast sums of money. In theory, they could be frozen out from international trade and still survive for quite some time because of the reserves they have built up. If this was the case, a freeze out and economic sanction might not deter China from developing nuclear weapons in a futuristic world where all nations have signed anti nuclear weapons treaty. If they did secure nuclear weapons, all other nations would then be at the mercy of one power who could theoretically rule the world. That is why I am fearful of a non nuclear weapons treaty. If everyone agrees, things will only be safe and prosperous until one bad nation decides to break up the party. At that time, things would be worse than ever. Basically one nation could wield all the power.
The second major hiccup is closely related to the first. Could a central monitoring agency such as the UN really do a satisfactory job of monitoring the weapons situation of all nations? What if they missed something or furthermore, what if the inspections officers were bought out? We would have to develop an incredibly elaborate system of checks and balances to ensure that corruption could not occur. However even in that case, there is still the issue of my first problem mentioned. I fear that a world without nuclear weapons would be even more dangerous than the one we live in today. It would be a world where one power could rise up and control all the others.
