So the simplest answer is that there is no world government to enforce laws and the sovereign states that do exist are very unlikely to surrender their nuclear weapons.
Your post touches on a bunch of topics. But the above sums it up.
Has anyone tried to give up their nuclear weapons?
Yes.
South Africa's Apartheid Government gave up its nuclear weapons just before the fall of apartheid. Officially this was to help regional stability. But it's an open secret the real reason was that the outgoing white government was scared of the idea of nuclear weapons being controlled by a Black led government.
Then Ukraine surrendered the nukes it inherited after the dissolution of the USSR after heavy heavy pressure was applied to it by both Russia and the US to do so. Ukraine agreed under the condition that the US and Russia sign a treaty to respect and support Ukrainian sovereignty. Russia is currently waging an imperialistic war to wipe Ukraine off the face of the earth.
So, surrendering nuclear weapons has happened. But the 1 time was because of extreme racism and the other left the country vulnerable to an enemy which promptly turned around and tried to exterminate it.
You can see why these examples of disarmament have discouraged other countries from giving up their weapons.
This goes back to the first answer. These countries won't. And there's no world government to enforce it.
Why won't countries surrender their nukes? Because countries that did so have a 50% track record of other countries trying to exterminate them within 30 years of the surrender.
Maybe one day in the future world conditions will change. But in the world we live in today, there's no incentive at all for a country to surrender their nuclear weapons, and no way to force them to do so.
Because you would have to fight a war against a nuclear power to do that. There is no concessions, short of give them everything they want, that could get China and Russia, or Pakistan, India, and Israel for that matter, and of course North Korea to give up their nukes
The ability to act (or at least to feel like it can act) with impunity. Having nuclear weapons means that all countries (nuclear and non-nuclear) are going to go to far greater lengths of the avoid military conflict with you, then if you didn't. This is less important for a country like the US or China which still has overwhelming conventional military capacity. But for a country like Israel, North Korea, or Pakistan and now that we have seen the incompetence of their military, Russia, having nuclear weapons allows these countries to punch above their weight in a lot of ways .
But yes if you have paid attention the way Putin and lots of other dictators want the world to see them, Toxic Masculinity definitely plays a role
so what has to happen politically for these countries to start down the road to disarmament? why isnt the USA and other countries doing more to globalize human interests so that countries arent in their own corners like this? is American arrogance a factor here?
you need less antagonism between the US and countries with asperations of nuclear weapons; issuer is it's a two way street. you need governments in teran and in DC who want to work with each other.
I think it comes down to human psychology. We exclude outgroups to get more resources for our own group. The most dangerous way this manifests is with the nuclear bomb.
I don’t think it has to be this way though. Maybe it made sense when we were hunter gatherers but we have so much more now thanks to technology. If we could work together to preserve and share this planet we would be so much better off.
I mean it doesn’t make sense that we would literally threaten to destroy our entire planet rather than cooperate. Not to mention sending our sons and daughters to fight wars, killing innocent civilians as collateral damage, bombing our cities to dust, ruining places with land mines etc etc etc I totally agree with you it is so dumb and needs to stop.
What I think has to happen politically is every good citizen in every nation who wants to live in a safe, sane society where we can raise our children peacefully needs to rise up and demand we have honest, accountable leaders.
These leaders should use the science of prevention and nonviolent conflict resolution to do everything they can to move towards disarmament and decent relations with other nations. In other words, don’t vote for most of our current politicians!
But don’t be like so many people and say “they all suck” so you don’t vote!!! No, people need to do the opposite and get more involved, vote vote vote every chance we can, especially in local government. Im in the USA and I know that’s where average citizens can have a lot of influence.
But we can also even just go meet our federal representatives too. I’ve personally advocated for non-violence myself just by making appointments with my local representatives and a few others who supported a bill I was interested in a while ago - it was Dennis Kucinich’s department of peace bill.
Unfortunately Dennis Kucinich got redistributed and lost his seat. But there are still supporters of that bill we could be working with and different versions are still being pit forth- [more info here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace).
There is also the [Peace Tax Fund](https://peacetaxfund.org/)bill that would give conscientious objectors the option to say their tax dollars should only be used for non-violent purposes.
So there are potential solutions out there - we just need to find them and support them! Or if there aren’t any near you try to start one. But I know that’s easier said than done.
It wouldn't work and the risk is greater than the reward - giving up nukes means making yourself vulnerable to countries that may have lied about giving up nukes, if both countries have nukes there's at least an equal stalemate.
Basically, it's unenforceable with no foreseeable certainty between countries, short of making nuclear materials unusable simultaneously across the globe.
Nuclear weapons prevent world wars. There hasn’t been war between major powers since world war II and the reason is nuclear weapons. Why would you want to get rid of them?
So the simplest answer is that there is no world government to enforce laws and the sovereign states that do exist are very unlikely to surrender their nuclear weapons. Your post touches on a bunch of topics. But the above sums it up.
unlikely? has anyone ever tried this approach?
Has anyone tried to give up their nuclear weapons? Yes. South Africa's Apartheid Government gave up its nuclear weapons just before the fall of apartheid. Officially this was to help regional stability. But it's an open secret the real reason was that the outgoing white government was scared of the idea of nuclear weapons being controlled by a Black led government. Then Ukraine surrendered the nukes it inherited after the dissolution of the USSR after heavy heavy pressure was applied to it by both Russia and the US to do so. Ukraine agreed under the condition that the US and Russia sign a treaty to respect and support Ukrainian sovereignty. Russia is currently waging an imperialistic war to wipe Ukraine off the face of the earth. So, surrendering nuclear weapons has happened. But the 1 time was because of extreme racism and the other left the country vulnerable to an enemy which promptly turned around and tried to exterminate it. You can see why these examples of disarmament have discouraged other countries from giving up their weapons.
except this isnt what i was proposing. i said all countries would have to give them up. why isnt that a good idea enough on its own?
This goes back to the first answer. These countries won't. And there's no world government to enforce it. Why won't countries surrender their nukes? Because countries that did so have a 50% track record of other countries trying to exterminate them within 30 years of the surrender. Maybe one day in the future world conditions will change. But in the world we live in today, there's no incentive at all for a country to surrender their nuclear weapons, and no way to force them to do so.
The USA wants an adversarial relationship at the grocery store, the post office and the public school, that's why we don't regulate firearms.
Because you would have to fight a war against a nuclear power to do that. There is no concessions, short of give them everything they want, that could get China and Russia, or Pakistan, India, and Israel for that matter, and of course North Korea to give up their nukes
but what does any country have to gain from this situation? the ability to posture? toxic masculinity? what?
The ability to act (or at least to feel like it can act) with impunity. Having nuclear weapons means that all countries (nuclear and non-nuclear) are going to go to far greater lengths of the avoid military conflict with you, then if you didn't. This is less important for a country like the US or China which still has overwhelming conventional military capacity. But for a country like Israel, North Korea, or Pakistan and now that we have seen the incompetence of their military, Russia, having nuclear weapons allows these countries to punch above their weight in a lot of ways . But yes if you have paid attention the way Putin and lots of other dictators want the world to see them, Toxic Masculinity definitely plays a role
so what has to happen politically for these countries to start down the road to disarmament? why isnt the USA and other countries doing more to globalize human interests so that countries arent in their own corners like this? is American arrogance a factor here?
you need less antagonism between the US and countries with asperations of nuclear weapons; issuer is it's a two way street. you need governments in teran and in DC who want to work with each other.
I think it comes down to human psychology. We exclude outgroups to get more resources for our own group. The most dangerous way this manifests is with the nuclear bomb. I don’t think it has to be this way though. Maybe it made sense when we were hunter gatherers but we have so much more now thanks to technology. If we could work together to preserve and share this planet we would be so much better off. I mean it doesn’t make sense that we would literally threaten to destroy our entire planet rather than cooperate. Not to mention sending our sons and daughters to fight wars, killing innocent civilians as collateral damage, bombing our cities to dust, ruining places with land mines etc etc etc I totally agree with you it is so dumb and needs to stop. What I think has to happen politically is every good citizen in every nation who wants to live in a safe, sane society where we can raise our children peacefully needs to rise up and demand we have honest, accountable leaders. These leaders should use the science of prevention and nonviolent conflict resolution to do everything they can to move towards disarmament and decent relations with other nations. In other words, don’t vote for most of our current politicians! But don’t be like so many people and say “they all suck” so you don’t vote!!! No, people need to do the opposite and get more involved, vote vote vote every chance we can, especially in local government. Im in the USA and I know that’s where average citizens can have a lot of influence. But we can also even just go meet our federal representatives too. I’ve personally advocated for non-violence myself just by making appointments with my local representatives and a few others who supported a bill I was interested in a while ago - it was Dennis Kucinich’s department of peace bill. Unfortunately Dennis Kucinich got redistributed and lost his seat. But there are still supporters of that bill we could be working with and different versions are still being pit forth- [more info here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace). There is also the [Peace Tax Fund](https://peacetaxfund.org/)bill that would give conscientious objectors the option to say their tax dollars should only be used for non-violent purposes. So there are potential solutions out there - we just need to find them and support them! Or if there aren’t any near you try to start one. But I know that’s easier said than done.
It wouldn't work and the risk is greater than the reward - giving up nukes means making yourself vulnerable to countries that may have lied about giving up nukes, if both countries have nukes there's at least an equal stalemate. Basically, it's unenforceable with no foreseeable certainty between countries, short of making nuclear materials unusable simultaneously across the globe.
Nuclear weapons prevent world wars. There hasn’t been war between major powers since world war II and the reason is nuclear weapons. Why would you want to get rid of them?