Some have come dangerously close to succeeding. The best way to reduce the probability of nuclear terrorism is to steadily eliminate the weapons and the materials used to make them. These nations are the last of their kind. Apart from the eight nations with established nuclear weapons programs, there are no other countries racing to establish the capability to build nuclear bombs. If North Korea's program can be contained, curtailed and ultimately rolled back, and the Iran nuclear agreement holds, it would then become possible to talk about the end of proliferation, the end of the wave that began 76 years ago with Hiroshima.
Ploughshares Fund grantees are working diligently towards that goal. The Cold War is long gone, but the nuclear threat remains. Since inventing the atomic bomb, the US alone has had dozens of nuclear near misses, including dropping two live bombs on North Carolina. In , Russia almost launched its missiles at the US when it thought it was under attack. The longer we keep thousands of nuclear weapons in fallible human hands, the greater the risk becomes of a catastrophe beyond historical experience.
The disputed Kashmir valley between India and Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places on earth. The Romans would later get their revenge when they attacked the quarreling Goths and Huns, bouncing the latter out of Central Europe. Facing invasion from formidable Mongol forces, central European princes temporarily placed their regional conflicts aside to defend their territory. Though the Mongols were slowly pushed eastward, they loomed large on the fringes of Europe until almost the 16th century.
A pivotal moment for Lithuania came after a decisive win at the Battle of Blue Waters. This victory stifled the expansion of the Golden Horde, and brought present-day Ukraine into its sphere of influence. The end of the Holy Roman Empire highlights the extreme territorial fragmentation in Germany and neighboring regions, in an era referred to as Kleinstaaterei.
Unification helped position Germany as a major power, and by the country had the largest economy in Europe. The Ottoman Empire—a fixture in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years—was in its waning years by the beginning of the 20th century. The empire had ceded territory in two costly wars with Italy and Balkan states, and by the time the dust cleared on WWI, the borders of the newly minted nation of Turkey began at the furthest edge of continental Europe. After the war, Germany again became fragmented into occupation zones—this time, overseen by the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.
Germany would not be made whole again until , when a weakening Soviet Union loosened its grip on East Germany. In the decades following WWII, the political boundaries of the European map remained relatively stable—that is, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in When the dust settled, there were 15 breakaway republics , six of which were in Europe. Bonus: If you liked the video above, be sure to watch this year-by-year account of who ruled territories across Europe.
The index measures the social risk landscape of different cities across the globe, using three key pillars:. After calculating scores based on these three metrics, cities were then grouped into four categories to measure their level of social risk:. Of the top places, Istanbul and Izmir rank the highest when it comes to overall human rights risks, largely because of labor rights violations and the exploitation of migrant and refugee workers.
This is something manufacturers should take note of, especially those who outsource production to these Turkish cities. Other major manufacturing and commercial hubs in China, like Guangzhou and Shanghai, place high on the list as well.
While a third of the top FDI cities are at high or extreme social risk, this figure is even higher when looking at all cities included in the [email protected] Social Index. In addition to the overall ranking, the report provides insight into specific human rights violations, highlighting which cities are most at risk.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pyongyang, North Korea places first on the list when it comes to civil and political rights violations. Under the current North Korean regime, some significant civil rights violations include arbitrary arrests and detentions, the holding of political prisoners and detainees, and a lack of judicial independence.
In addition to North Korea, Syria places high on the civil rights risk index as well, with three of the top five cities located in the war-torn country. Pakistan in particular struggles with child labor issues, with an estimated 3.
Connect with us. But they've only ever been used twice in history - against Japan in during World War Two where they caused huge devastation and enormous loss of life. The radiation from the bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima lasted several months and killed an estimated 80, people. And the bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed more than 70, people. In theory, pretty much anyone with the technology, intelligence and facilities. But whether countries are allowed to or not? That's a whole other issue.
This is because of something called the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons NPT - an agreement which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.
These five countries are called nuclear-weapon states - and are allowed to have weapons because they built and tested a nuclear explosive device before the treaty came into effect on 1 January Even though these countries have nuclear weapons, under the agreement, they have to reduce how many they have and can't keep them forever.
Israel which has never confirmed or denies the existence of its nukes , India and Pakistan have never joined the NPT, and North Korea left in Iran started its nuclear programme in the s and has always insisted its nuclear energy programme is peaceful. But there have been suspicions it was being used as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, which prompted the UN Security Council, US and EU to impose crippling sanctions from This led to an agreement in between Iran and other big powers, in which Iran signed a deal to scale back its nuclear energy programme in exchange for trade, but President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in May And now European countries have challenged Iran for not following the terms of the deal.
And after the escalating tensions between Iran and the US this year, President Trump has pledged that as long as he is president, Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. After increased tensions over the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by the US in Baghdad, Iran has said it's not going to follow the restrictions imposed by the deal anymore.
The number of nuclear weapons in the world is actually down from 70, in to around 14, today.
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