Transcript

JAMES: " An example country that has been taking steps towards a nuclear weapons program, that has been angering our president, is North Korea. They have been angry at each other over social media for a couple of years now. And their nuclear weapons program had developed to the point where they so called can strike the United States but its highly unlikely that they can and that's kind of their goal is to be able to strike the United States which, in all fairness to our president, is a concern."

There's the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, China, and Israel. All of these countries have nuclear weapons programs, it's just they're not in the news as often and they are not conflicting and as aggressive as some of the others. But the most interesting things is all the countries who use them or have access to them say they will only be used for defense. But if everybody is going to be using them for the defense what is the point in having them?"

NICK: "Yeah, what is the actual point of nuclear weapons?"

JAMES: "After the United States developed a nuclear weapon, came a period of time where the United States and Russia engaged in a Cold War." 

NICK: "Yeah, this started when the United States entered world war two, and it truly kicked off in 1945 when the United States finished the creation of the nuclear bomb and dropped it on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which basically started the arms race between the Soviet Union and United States who wanted to get more and more nuclear weapons just so that they could secure their place in the world since they came out as the two major victors of the second world war." 

JAMES: "Yeah, and these, as the victors, had the best technology of the time and then they were both pointing their weapons at each other as a “defense”, and then they realized there was a conflict of ideology. There was Communism vs Capitalism and in response, the United States of America presented the Truman Doctrine which was the policy of containment, which was meant to make Russia, essentially declaring war on Russia, a Cold War on Russia saying that we will not let you expand into any other countries, your way of government is bad and we will not let it expand, and then in response they defended themselves with the Warsaw Pact, saying they were going to strengthen their ties to all other Communist nations, and this Communism vs Capitalism, like kind of “Idealogical battle”, kicked off and was the main driving force of the whole war." 

NICK: "Yeah, this led to instances like the Cuban Missile Crisis which was, we were at Defcon 2, there was actually a case where there was a submarine that was authorized to fire nuclear weapons and it needed the three admirals on board to fire it and only two of them agreed to it, one person stood between us, one person stood between modern day and the end of the world." 

NICK: "So, if nuclear weapons are such a big deal, what's been done about it?"

JAMES: "Well, there have been several steps towards nuclear non-proliferation, And the cessation of nuclear weapons to exist. The first step we took was the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Which stopped more countries from getting nuclear weapons, but allowed states who already had them to continue to have them. But, take steps towards eliminating them. And then there was the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which was used to cover cracks of previous treaties that would allow nations to further develop nuclear weapons and test them. And it was, it banned, formally banned, all nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons explosions of every type everywhere. "

NICK: "More recently this led into the ban treaty, which took six years of debating, between, you know, many countries. None of them were nuclear powers though. And it was opened for signatures on September 20th of 2017, I believe, around that timeframe. And, so far its got 70 signatures and 20 ratifications but it needs 50 to go into effect." 

JAMES: "I believe none of these are nuclear weapons states correct?"

NICK: "Yeah, none of these have been nuclear weapons states, they haven't even, they haven't been involved much, not even NATO countries. But, if it passed and we got all the nuclear weapons states to sign it, it would be the final treaty to end the whole saga of nuclear weapons."

JAMES: "Yeah, the only issue is getting those nuclear weapons states to willingly give up their nuclear weapons." 

NICK: "That's a real challenge, especially with, you know, like we said earlier rising tensions between many of the countries it's just, its become more and more of an issue and, you know, we need to definitely buckle down for the long haul here, because its going to take a lot more negotiation." 

JAMES: "From what I've heard is it's going to be an issue that not going to be solved recently unless we take dramatic action in the coming years, but over generations, I do see this issue being resolved through this treaty."

NICK: "I can definitely see people coming together eventually, and, really pulling through."

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