Assessment 3: Portfolio

This report includes the historical development of WMD and other aspects related to it. Learn about the different types of WMD, their uses in military, limitations, and more.

Assessment 3: Portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Defining WMD...........................................................................................................................1
The historical development of WMD.........................................................................................1
History of cold war......................................................................................................................2
Military uses of WMD................................................................................................................2
Limitations of chemical biological and radiological weapons....................................................2
Uses of chemical weapons in modern time.................................................................................2
Nuclear weapons.........................................................................................................................3
Strategic coercion........................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
International security is also known as global security which includes different measures
that are by any state or international organisation in order to ensure mutual survival and safety
(Shamai, 2020). The duration of cold war is between 1947 to 1991. Weapon of mass destruction
can lead to cause great destruction, loss of life or injury. This report will includes historical
development of WMD and other aspects related to this.
Defining WMD
WMD stands for weapon of mass destruction and it includes nuclear, radiological,
chemical, biological as well as other weapons that can kill and cause significant harm to human,
environment and human made structure or biosphere. It's usage and scope has been evolved and
been disputed by often signifying more political than technically. WMD was an integral part of
American national security discourse which is evident by its growing usage.
The historical development of WMD
Weapons of mass destruction are the major threat to public safety and instil fear in the
American people. There are different types of weapons of mass destruction such as Biological,
chemical and nuclear.
 Biological weapons of mass destruction – This type of weapons has been used since
medieval times. Biological weapons has used for hurling of diseased corpses, animal and
human into fortified towns. Biological weapons were first used in year 1763 United
States (Yang, Kugler and Abdollahian, 2018). This types of weapons are easy to create
and hold but it is quite hazardous weapon.
 Chemical weapons of mass destruction - Chemical weapons were used extensively used
in World war I and II. This weapons were consider when Chinese used arsenic smoke as
early as 1000 BC. There are numbers types of chemical weapons such as blister agent,
blood agents, choking hazard agents, tear gas, nerve agents, vomiting agents etc. These
chemical weapons worked by either by making contact through this skin and by
consumption. These are not dangerous as biological weapons.
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 Nuclear weapons of mass destruction - These weapons lead to represent the greatest
threat. There are some ways to acquire nuclear weapons such as smuggling, combining
radiological material, utilizing conventional explosive attack, nuclear facilities or by
acquiring chemical that can be weaponized or deployed against a population.
History of cold war
The United States and the Soviet Union along with their allies were locked in very long
and tense conflicts which is consider as the cold war (Talbot, 2020). This happen during the
time duration of 1946 to 1991. This time period has been characterized by an aggressive arms
race, proxy ware and ideological bids for the world dominance although the parties were
technically at peace.
Military uses of WMD
There are various used of WMD in Military. During 20th century weapons of mass
destruction has been developed as the tool of military with the motive of move to total mass
industrialised war. While the stagnation of war in the industrial ear WMD were used.
Limitations of chemical biological and radiological weapons
Chemical weapons are killing people and it will lead to have adverse impact
environment and human made structure (Yang, Kang and Kugler, 2017). Chemical, biological
and radiological weapons are effective weapons of terror as its affects are horrific.
Uses of chemical weapons in modern time
Chemical weapons has been consider as the tool which is used in war form many years.
This will lead to impact over activities of war and it has been used form thousand years. The
chemical weapons has been used in poisoned arrows, arsenic smoke, boiling tar, noxious fumes
and many more. The warfare of modern chemical has been genesis on the battlefields of World
war.
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Nuclear weapons
The nuclear weapon includes the weapons such as bomb or missile which contains
nuclear energy which causes an explosion(Hatch, 2018). The major purpose of nuclear weapons
are deterring as well as prevention form terrorist. Nuclear weapon device designed to release
energy in an explosive manner that will lead to create nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or
combination of these two processes.
Strategic coercion
Strategic coercion is classified into two part that is deterrence and complacence. In this
deterrence refer as the threats to discourage an adversary from initiating an undesirable act.
Compellence or coercive diplomacy is refer as the strategies the engaged to coercing an
adversary with the motive of doing something as well as to stop doing something (Talbot, 2020).
Deterrence and compellences are majorly differ on several elements such as initiative, timescale
and the nature of demand.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Shamai, P., 2020. What’s in a Name? Deterrence and the Stigmatisation of WMD.
In Deterrence (pp. 77-96). Springer, Cham.
Yang, Z., Kugler, J. and Abdollahian, M., 2018, July. Conditional Deterrence: An Agent-Based
Framework of Escalation Dynamics in an Era of WMD Proliferation. In International
Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 303-312). Springer, Cham.
Talbot, B.J., 2020. Getting Deterrence Right. Journal of Strategic Security, 13(1), pp.26-40.
Yang, Z., Kang, K. and Kugler, J., 2017, July. An Agent-Based Approach on Conditional
Deterrence. In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and
Ergonomics (pp. 333-342). Springer, Cham.
Hatch, B.B., 2018. Defining a class of cyber weapons as WMD: an examination of the
merits. Journal of Strategic Security, 11(1), pp.43-61.
Talbot, B.J., 2020. Getting Deterrence Right: The Case for Stratified Deterrence. Journal of
Strategic Security, 13(1), p.2.
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