Currently, there are between 20,000 and 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world [1, 2]. Of these, over 1,500 are deployable by the two largest nuclear weapons states, the U.S. and Russia [3].
We often hear how a world without nuclear weapons will enhance global security and safety and that we are on our way to a goal of a world without them. As put forward by President Obama in his 2009 speech in Prague, the U.S. is committed to a world “free of nuclear weapons.” However, President Obama admitted this goal might be many years away and possibly not feasible in his lifetime.
Though most of us have heard about the inherent dangers of large numbers of nuclear weapons, there is a flip side to this argument that we rarely (if ever) hear.