Question

Which poses the greatest threat: nuclear weapons, small arms proliferation, or chemical/biological weapons. Do current defense systems protect against these threats? What needs to be done? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

Which poses the greatest threat: nuclear weapons, small arms proliferation, or chemical/biological weapons?

The greatest threat to mankind is chemical or biological weapons proliferation. Small arms may be distributed in limited numbers with the ability to kill only a fixed number of people, but the biological weapons have the ability to not only infect a great number of people, but also the ability to spread endlessly in the form of communicable diseases. If a virus might spread, the control of it is next to impossible. Though, nuclear weapons also have a similar potency, but there are only a limited number of countries that have the right and funds to carry out such large scale destruction, with huge amount of funds required for the same. The chemical biological weapons are relatively not costly and do not fall under as strict supervision as the nuclear or even the small arms rules.

Current Defense systems do not protect against any of these threats such as endemic or a communicable disease. There are no strict rules for the same. An example was the widespread threat of anthrax that had become so viral such that it was supposedly spread using letters, in the year 2001. This was launched by a group of scientists and there’s a much greater number of scientists who are potent in creating such weapons in their lab, that would go unnoticed.

The government needs to put in more strict rules and regulations for the development rules against any of these laboratories, the big ones or even the small ones, that may be operating on biosafety level 3 and above, so that in any case if such actions are even attempted, they may be stopped prior.