Outline

Intro

Correlation of development and deadliness

Historical account uptil WW-1 and WW-2 and beyond

Nuclear Weaponry

The psychological advantage

Arms Races and the necessity to curb them

Military spendings and their load upon budgets

Conclusion 


Essay


The day Qabil, the son of Adam (AA.) picked up a rock and killed Habil, marked the first time man used a weapon against another man. The world since then has seen the use of a variety of weapons as the human race has developed. This evolution of armaments has rendered each proceeding one far deadlier than the previous. History is evidence for the fact that as the countries of the world developed, so did their means and tools of warfare.



The ancient fortified Greek city of Troy was infiltrated using the cunning means of a Trojan horse. The army of Alexander the Great in the 4th century developed cross-bows and built siege towers to gain leverage in the battlefield and Napoleon in the 19th century relied much upon the use of artillery. The British colonial empire brought with its expansion, guns and rifles and many other technologically advanced means which were alien to their opposition in that zeitgeist. This was one of the main causes of the failure of the Indian revolt of 1857 against the British East India Company - an event better remembered in history books as the 1857 War of Independence. The Indians were technologically backward as opposed to the British who used modern forms of weapons and communication such as the electronic wire.



As the clock ran further, the technological advancements and development in the European countries accelerated. Britain, France, Germany and Russia in the early twentieth century saw massive development and Industrial Growth. All the European giants set off an arms race throughout the continent in order to subdue the other in the name of patriotism and national pride and focused their resources and spendings into development of progressively modern weapons. All that was needed was a spark and the simmering continent was set ablaze by a conflagration better remembered as the First World War (1914-1920). The world saw the entry of modern technology and advanced weaponry into the battlefield such as tanks, submarines and U-boats.



Between 1929-1935, another war, this time far more lethal than the previous one, was witness, known as the Second World War. As technology evolved, so did the weapons. Jet propulsion replaced propeller powered aircraft, radar systems improved and chemical weapons entered the scene and nuclear weapons started being developed. However, witnessing their havoc-wreaking destructive power in the theaters of the two ill-fated Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their usage is abandoned world-wide. Needless to say, the threat of an all-out nuclear war between the world’s super powers wasn’t averted and this led to an arms race between Soviet Russia and USA after the Second World War. Other countries joined in too in the race to procure nuclear weapons. Space was seen as a frontier there to be conquered. The “Space-Race” is a famous time in history which resulted in Russians Uri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova attaining the titles of the first man and woman in space respectively and in reply to the Russians, American Neil Armstrong being the first man to set foot on the moon. The motives behind these efforts were to gain the psychological advantage.



But why is psychological advantage necessary in warfare? A simple answer is, because it governs the spirits of the soldiers and provides the impetus for any military operations. Possessing deadly weapons threaten the enemy and keep them at bay. During the later part of WW-I when the British Empire was battered, bruised and significantly weakened in its colonies due to war back in Europe, the Empire had lost much of its tenacity in the subcontinent. However, memories of the 1857 revolt were still fresh in the Indian minds and despite the fact that Indian forces outnumbered the British forces, and the advantage of the war-period, the Indians did not revolt as the British feared. Instead, they sympathized with their colonial rulers and supported them in the war with soldiers and supplies. The idea of a psychological advantage still prevails in the form of cold-wars and arms races. India and Pakistan are current examples of this. Both the countries are hell-bent upon establishing supremacy upon the other quite like the US-Soviet cold war. Both showcase their latest military technology through worldwide expos and both have attained Atomic Bombs – putting the programs of Global Zero and Nuclear Non-Proliferation in jeopardy. Consequently, Iran is also joining the ‘nuclear club’ adding more to the woes of the world.



Bigger guns ask for bigger pockets. In order to procure deadlier weapons, countries spend a lot of money and resources. Pakistan allocates 75% of its budget to defense while the annual military spending of the US was allocated at around 1.415 trillion dollars as of 2012. With this much money going into belligerent causes, the underdeveloped countries such as the Sub-Saharan countries like Uganda or Latin American countries like Cuba don’t stand a chance and thus have to rely upon other means such as child soldiers and guerrilla warfare respectively. Those that spend from a large cut from their budget like Pakistan and India suffer in other areas of human development such as education and healthcare and the standards of living in those countries plummet.



Wars and weapons have kept people far away from each other. However, the lessons learnt from them and the memories of battles and bloodbaths have pushed the world players to come together to sort out their mess and form platforms to resolve matters more peacefully, such as the United Nations and the European Union. Globalization, faster means of transport and the World Wide Web have made it possible for the people to come closer and understand each other more vividly. Peace negotiations, ceasefires, trade agreements, cultural exchanges and tourism, celebration of diversity, cross-border social contact and sports events can let countries and people move toward progress and continue upon the path of a global development without investing colossal amounts of money upon hoarding weapons. This is by far the only way we can evade another bloodbath and quite possibly, a Third World War. Instead of finding reasons to fight, leaders of the countries should focus upon finding reasons to come closer. Mahatma Gandhi rightly said:

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”