Topic: 2025 – No First Use Policies and Nuclear Disarmament
Country: Finland
Delegate Name: Brady Sievert
Disarmament & International Security Committee
No First Use Policies and Nuclear Disarmament
Republic of Finland
Brady Sievert
Lakeland Union High School
The inception of nuclear weapons at the tail end of the second world war was, at the time, a successful and efficient answer to ending the years long, brutal conflict, taxing on the resources of every nation worldwide. However, in years following the conflict, the technology has only become a detriment to the betterment of mankind. At any given moment, there are over twelve thousand nuclear weapons in circulation around the world, held by nine nuclear powers. These armaments are in such numbers that the potential use of them all would essentially turn the surface of the planet into glass and render Earth uninhabitable.
Total atomic annihilation has been a looming threat over the conscience of humanity since the Cold war. And numerous times, Humanity has been on the precipice of immolation thanks to procedural failings. Nuclear weapons obviously aren’t good for the species but they have ironically had the effect of forcing the avoidance of all out conflict, due to the threat of mutually assured destruction. The adaptation of a No first use policy is well meaning but comes with complications; it would legally eliminate the creation, housing, and usage of nuclear weapons -but the operative word is legally; this would leave nations abiding by the agreement vulnerable to possible nuclear attack without any threat of response. Because of this, we as a species have placed ourselves in a dilemma: Arm ourselves until the powderkeg explodes, or, stop digging our own grave, but hope none of our own push us into it.
Ideally the United Nations should preside over the nuclear disarming of the world, but that would require significant commitments from every member. It would be extraordinarily difficult to organize the deactivation of thousands of weapons from multiple states, but the UN would be the only group where the resources to do so could be accumulated. A committee could be established to undertake the disarmament of the world but it would be an extensive task that would require insurmountable bureaucratic effort.
The Republic of Finland does not, has never, and hopes against the necessity of nuclear armament by our nation. This of course does not apply so easily to the rest of the world and our nation understands this. As one of the newest admissions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, Finland understands the dangers of nuclear weapons and recognizes the positives that would come with nuclear disarmament, but on the grounds of agreements like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, our country believes it would be against the security of the alliance, and impossible to strip the world’s nations of nuclear defense without leaving nations unprotected and vulnerable to atomic attack developed illegally in regard to international law. But in regard to spread of nuclear weapons capability, we believe that adherence to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty NPT, is the best step toward progress toward the betterment of mankind, and the safety of the future
Pseudo-Bibliography
https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_arsenals
Finland and Non-Proliferation: 50 Years of Implementing …
Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non‑Proliferation
https://vcdnp.org › finland-non-proliferation-50-years-…
https://disarmament.unoda.org/en/our-work/weapons-mass-destruction/nuclear-weapons/treaty-non-proliferation-nuclear-weapons
https://www.iaea.org/topics/non-proliferation-treaty
