Only nine people on the entire planet have access to the nuclear button, the mythical and cinematic “switch” (which in reality is nothing like that) that can decide the fate of the world in a matter of minutes. And almost half of them have seen these days how the countries they govern They found themselves in a war in the Middle East overnight triggered by the attack by a group of Islamist terrorists on the border between Gaza and Israel.
This is actually one of the bad news of this conflict, which is getting worse and worse, even though logic and common sense dictate that no leader will dare to use this type of weapon. The other bad news is that some of these executives are There are serious doubts that the international community can trust them.
Which nuclear powers are there currently in the world? There are 9 in total. The most important thing is The United States, which shares 90% of the arsenal with Russia. Two others are ancient European nations, United Kingdom and France. And from then on a more mixed panorama. They also have nuclear weapons India and Pakistan (the last to join the Middle East conflict with attacks). These two countries, “deep enemies” since their liberation from British rule, see their nuclear arsenal as a deterrent weapon against their enemy.
The sixth nuclearized country is Russia. Although their power has weakened significantly since the Soviet era, the simple fact that the possible use of these weapons in the Ukraine conflict (and those that may follow) is a cause for concern.
The list of nuclear powers is complete Chinaanother uncomfortable member in this club, Israel (the only state with nuclear weapons in the region after the international community stopped Iran's attempts to join) and the most worrying member of this ranking of all, North Korea, which has few nuclear weapons but they are in the hands of a leader like Kim Jong -un, as challenging as it is unpredictable.
Four of these countries were involved in the fighting that broke out first in the Gaza Strip, then in the Red Sea and finally, with the intervention of Iran and Pakistan, in a wider area. Specifically, they are Israel, which invaded Gaza in search of Hamas leaders who ordered the October 7 terrorist attacks, Pakistan, which has just bombed Iranian territory in response to an attack by TehranAnd United States and United Kingdomwho have bombed Yemen's Houthi terrorists blocking access to the Red Sea.
13,000 nuclear weapons
In total, these countries have almost 13,000 nuclear weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Studies Institute. A third of them are operational and ready for use. The rest is deducted or saved.
The country with the most nuclear warheads stored is Russia, and the United States has the most in service. They have existed since the first nuclear explosion in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 2,000 nuclear tests.
India, Pakistan and Israel are the only nuclear powers (apart from the harmless South Sudan) that have not signed the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), another source of unrest. North Korea gave up on it in 2003.
Nuclear disarmament is one of the priorities of the United Nations and has been courageously pursued for decades by the United States and the USSR. Already in 2021, the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TIAN) was adopted, supported by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and ratified by 50 countries.