Nuclear Weapons in the Mediterranean

Abstract

In recent years important steps have been taken in improving East-West relations and in building meaningful accords to control and reduce different categories of weapons. It seems, nevertheless, that the new political climate is insufficient to give productive results as far as naval weapons are concerned. The United States and the Soviet Union, as well as China, Great Britain and France, currently deploy a wide assortment of naval forces including nuclear weapons at sea. The very presence of these weapons threatens the peace in a way that land-based weapons do not. The oceans are borderless and naval operations may result in direct confrontation, misunderstandings, accidents and crises. Furthermore, nuclear weapons at sea are a serious threat to the environment. Therefore it is to be hoped that naval weapons and nuclear weapons at sea, in particular, will receive increasing attention from public opinion and governments. One of the obstacles preventing the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) Treaty on the reduction of strategic nuclear weapons has been the issue of Sealaunched Cruise Missiles (SLCMs) with their potential for land attacks. Even the talks on the reduction of conventional weapons in Europe have been affected by the refusal to take into account the weapons deployed in European waters.KeywordsNuclear WeaponChemical WeaponSurface ShipNuclear SubmarineCruise MissileThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.