Nuclear Weapons? Whats the Point?

In a major departure from my usual "might is right" position on things, I find myself agreeing with non-proliferationists on the matter of nuclear weapons. There is really no point in the widespread possession of nuclear weapons. Everyone is so afraid to use them all they are good for is a chain rattler at best. They are good as a threat but no one is really willing to suffer the consequences for actually using them. Would it not be better to fight convention wars to solve our problems?

During the Congress period (15^th and 16^th centuries) wars were fought by professional armies and the citizens were really left out of it. I think it would be wise to work at returning to such a system. Its effective is evident in three ways: 1) War would minimally affect the citizens of the country. 2) Most of the conflicts were take place between either states and states or states and some non-state actors. 3) It would leave an opening for institutions to begin to step in and facilitate diplomacy if necessary.

One of the chief problems of the 20^th century was the huge nationalist feelings of the nations involved in the World Wars. War really impacted the citizens of all the players and these wars required great sacrifices from them. The benefits of a professional army system would be that only those who wanted a life of fighting and adventuring would be affected much like the War in Iraq is far removed from the American people now. Turning the American armed forces into a highly paid and highly trained mercenary-like force would make them extremely flexible to make the necessary tactical changes that would enable them to be an effective fighting force in a large field conflict but also able to root out terrorists that afflict us in small urban situations.

Keeping all the problems at the State and Non-State actor level is a far easier system. Inviting terrorist groups to the United Nations may give them credence it also gets them in the game and gets them included into the diplomacy process. As President Karsai has proved in Afghanistan if you can get everyone together, and get them working together, unity can be achieved. We know the demands of the terrorists, instead of playing their game let's make them play ours under the auspices of inclusion.

One of the advantages of returning to a pre-nuclear world where conventional wars are fought by mercenary armies is the ability of many problems to be handled by institutions. The only way an Institutionalist system will work is when states are willing to participate and put the overall good of the world over their own self interests. Obviously, that isn't going to happen any time soon especially as long as there is an imbalance in power in the world. Getting rid of nuclear weapons greatly equals the field and forces everyone, even major powers, to sit at the table and talk. If it is an Institutionalist system that is desired, getting rid of the Western Power's trump card is the best way to do it.

I think we can safely conclude that a safer and more viable world order can be created without the necessity of threatening a large nuclear explosion or having to suffer the consequences that would result from such a foolish course of action.