The technology that surrounds us is getting better day by day. Be it artificial intelligence, our phones, anything that comes to your mind; they are evolving by the day. But not only the technology that we use is improving; things like guns, rockets, bombs are getting better as well. We now have these hydrogen bombs that can vaporise cities, or biochemicals that I can’t even discuss. Now, we always hear that these are all in the name of peace but is that actually the case?
Well, there is some truth to contributing to peace with weapons of mass destruction; sounds ironic, right? This is a psychological tactic that is called deterrence. This is because when two sides decide to go to war when both sides have weapons of mass destruction, a doctrine called mutually assured destruction (or MAD for short) doctrine takes is effects meaning that to a big war between 2 or more major powers to happen, both sides need to accept that there is no way out for either side. Maybe not even for the 2 sides, wars like these can quickly turn into extinction events in the right (or wrong) hands. And it really doesn’t require a rocket scientist to tell you that neither side wants to get destroyed. Deterrence is basically this.
However, deterrence also comes with some downsides as well, one being proxy wars. Proxy wars are wars between relatively weak countries representing the interests of the large countries that support either side. Because the bigger powers don’t want to go to war with each other, they resort to funding small wars like this to expand their circles of influence. So basically in cold war situations, major wars become proxy wars. Meaning that world peace is either very hard to find, or even a unicorn at this point.
Another downside is that just the thought of having WMDs is a reason of distrust. Which I mean is a fair point, we are not psychics we can’t just predict what someone will do or won’t do. Because we simply can’t.
In my opinion, technology developing is a double-edged sword. Sure it causes the rate of major wars to drop, but it also causes the rate of minor wars to skyrocket. Personally, I would much rather not to have MAD as an actual doctrine but, it doesn’t look like we get much say in this matter anyway.