Understand threat of nuclear weapon in 10 questions

From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin brandished the nuclear threat. Usually presented as a deterrent, its use would have disastrous consequences.

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Three days after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to make use of the nuclear weapon. To date, nine countries are endowed. While it is mainly considered a deterrent, its use in a generalized conflict would have disastrous consequences, not only for humanity, but also for life on earth. In ten questions, we deliver the main keys to understand the stakes.

Who holds the nuclear weapon?

Nine countries are currently equipped with nuclear weapons:

• The five nuclear powers of the Cold War: Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom and France (only country of the European Union to be a nuclear power today);
• Three states that have openly recognized have developed them since the end of the cold war: Pakistan, India and North Korea;
• Israel, who has never officially recognized hold this weapon.

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Is the nuclear weapon stock still as important as during the cold war?

In the 1960s, facing the dangers of proliferation, that is, the increase in the number of countries with atomic weapons, first international agreements have emerged. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), entered into force in 1970, limits to five the number of countries authorized to hold the weapon – those who had already acquired at the time, the United States, The USSR (then Russia from the end of 1991), France, the United Kingdom and China.

Gradually, almost all countries have joined, with the exception of India, Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea has withdrawn in 2003, and some signatories, such as Iran or Burma, have been suspected of developing clandestine nuclear programs.