“Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world”.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

One fathomless longing of the human is for security, peace, and stability. And the possession of a nuclear weapon or other weapons of mass destruction is the greatest menace for humanity.

Nuclear weapons are the most lethal and indiscriminately inhumane weapons ever existed. It’s the only thing present on this planet to be capable of wiping out life.

We have already seen the catastrophic damage it brought upon Japan in 1945. And as time passed by we humans have found out other more deadly and fatal weapons.
Since the Japan bombings, we have not seen any other full-magnitude international war situations not just because there are no serious diplomatic tensions but because many of the nations possess nuclear weapons.

Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation is not just a global security issue but one in a class of its own, having profound urgency.
The only other weighing global issue being climate change.

The gravest danger today is the existing stockpile of nuclear weaponry. There are at least 23,000 existing nuclear warheads with a combined destructive capability of around 150000 Hiroshima or Nagasaki-sized bombs.

YES, NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT IS NECESSARY

Experts have been urging continuously for complete disarmament, which is completely justified.

In 1963, Saint John XXIII urged the prohibition of an atomic weapon and stated that authentic and lasting international peace cannot rest on a balance of military power, but only upon mutual trust.

Experts say that when a nuclear bomb will explode the surface will become hotter than the sun causing mass destruction, thus bringing annihilation.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the symbolic Doomsday Clock by 30 seconds in February, which indicates how the world leaders are failing in maintaining peace.

Countries like the USA and Russia have High-alert nuclear weapon(s) whose launch can be ordered (through the National Command Authority) and executed (via a nuclear command and control system) within 15 minutes or less. The USA has 6450 nuclear bombs in hand while Russia holds 6850 of them. With so high a degree of hazard in existence, the threat seems to be present above our head like a dangling sword.

Apart from this, Nuclear Terrorism is undeniable insecurity. Many terrorist organizations are trying hard to obtain nuclear weapons and THE BLACK MARKETING OF NUCLEAR WEAPON MATERIAL IS A GLOBAL THREAT. And if in unfortunate times they got hold of it, the holocaust it would create is beyond imagination.
Even if according to some experts the probability of terrorists having hold of a nuclear weapon is very small due to the weapon’s high security, we should not underestimate their capability as they have tried before and will try again in the future.

The Japanese terror cult Aum Shinrikyo, which used sarin gas in the 1995 Tokyo Metro attack, has also tried to acquire nuclear weapons.
In July 2014, after the fall of Mosul(a city in Iraq)
, ISIS militants captured nuclear materials from Mosul University. Later nuclear experts confirmed the material to be of “low grade”.
Till now terrorists are unsuccessful in acquiring nuclear materials but that does not mean they will not in the future.

Concludingly,

“A world of peace, free from nuclear weapons, is the aspiration of millions of men and women everywhere. To make this ideal a reality calls for involvement on the part of all: individuals, religious communities and civil society, countries that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not, the military and private sectors, and international organizations” says Pope Francis in memory of the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb during his visit to the Peace Memorial Park on November 24, 2019.