International Has the invention of the atomic bomb made the world a more peaceful place?

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

I know there are two major wars going on as we speak, but what do you think?

I feel like there would have been another world war by now, if it wasn't for the threats of utter annihilation of our world if went nuclear.

So in a strange way these weapons of mass destruction made the world more peaceful in a sense.

 

[Rob Battisti]

Unequivocally, yes.

 

[Badr Hari]

I'm not sure.

 

[BIKES!]

Well… it prolonged the inevitable.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

they did allow weaker actors to present a higher threat than they would have otherwise.

 

[Otto!]

Not sure. Deterrence only works with sane individuals, and not all leaders are sane…

 

[ferrisjso]

Yes and No.

Yes-Without nukes many of the people on this thread wouldn't have been born as there would have been 1 or 2 more major conventional wars in the 20th century with probable 9 figure casualties. These 2 wars are not major wars btw they seem major to us because we've never seen an actual one. A major war involves at least 2 of the great powers directly fighting each other, usually more.

No-The issue is that could all change in an instant and if it does we all die.

Nukes are the only weapon that as of THIS moment have saved more lives than its killed.

 

[Lord_Impaler]

It has thus far. But conventional warfare on a massive scale never had the potential to destroy the planet, so that’s a pretty big down side.

 

[USA!USA!]

Yes, for major powers. If you don't have one and are not part of a military alliance (e.g. NATO), you are still open game.

 

[Makani]

Yes and no. It keeps the major powers at peace, because we know the potential consequences. But because of that, I think we tend to take our aggression (and military-industrial complex) out on near defenseless can countries, or pay them to take it out on each other to indirectly hurt our nuclear contemporaries. I think we could have learned the lesson of World War 2 without nuclear weapons, Little Boy and Fat Man were just exclamation points for the slowpokes.

 

[HereticBD]

In general, yes. We'd be at WW7 without it.

 

[Natural Order]

They’ve likely curbed some delusions and aspirations over the last 70 years, for sure.

 

[skold]

Yes

As a result, World War III is no longer a realistic concern.

 

[SummerStriker]

So far so good, but we only need one major nuclear war to undo all the gains made by MAD.

 

[Rod1]

Yes in the general sense as there are no more World Wars and no in the sense that nuclear powers feel they can invade other countries without fear of retaliation.