research outline

Outline

Thesis Statement: Efficiency, peacekeeping, and national security make nuclear weapons a crucial asset in modern relations.

1. Introductory Statement: “A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us,”- Margaret Thatcher

History: Nuclear weapons have only been used twice in war, both during the World War two at Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the United States.

Definition: Nuclear weapons are weapons that utilize nuclear energy to make an explosion.

Problem: There is a large debate on weather nuclear weapons are beneficial or detrimental to society.

Thesis: Cheap costs, peacekeeping, and national security make nuclear weapons a crucial asset in modern relations.

2. First Argument: Nuclear weapons are effective, trumping all other weapons.

Opposing view: Some people argue that these weapons are too dangerous to be used because there are situations where things can go wrong and that they are too expensive.

Your view: However, nuclear weapons are considered very cheap compared to how much other areas of the defense budget. Furthermore, modern technology makes nuclear weapons safer for pilots because it is not dependent on weather conditions.

Reason 1: “A successful attack with either chemical or biological weapons is heavily dependent on favorable weather conditions. Missiles are not the ideal delivery systems for either type of weapon because the agent can be incinerated by heat from the explosive impact” (Eland).

Reason 2: “Currently, American taxpayers spend about $25 billion (about $77 per person in the US) per year on nuclear weapons and operations. That is less than five percent of the defense budget and less than half of one percent of the federal budget” (Lowther). “As CBO points out, even at its peak, nuclear modernization will not exceed 6.4% of total defense spending. In the 1970s the United States spent 17.1% of the DoD budget on the nuclear triad” (“Ground Truth: Nuclear Weapons: Essential, Affordable, Cornerstone of Our Defense”).

Reason 3: “They can be modified in many ways to respond to changing military requirements, as was done when the B61 bomb was modified to give it an earth-penetrating capability” (“Nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century”).

Transition: Not only are nuclear weapons efficient, but they also preserve peace.

3. Second Argument: Nuclear weapons hold a significant role in maintaining global peace.

Opposing view: The opposing view believes that these weapons pose a greater risk because they believe that nuclear weapons are too tempting for countries.

Your view: Yet since nuclear weapons have been made, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of deaths and an increase in diplomacy between nations.

Reason 1: “Nuclear weapons represent the ultimate defense of the nation, a deterrent against any and all potential adversaries. Combined with diplomacy and conventional military capabilities, nuclear weapons have helped to avoid a large-scale conflict between leading world powers for over fifty years” (“Nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century”).

Reason 2: “There has been an approximately ninety percent reduction in conflict related deaths over the last seven decades” (Lowther). “During the first half of the 20th century and just prior to the introduction of U.S. nuclear deterrence, the world suffered 80-100 million fatalities over the relatively short war years of World Wars I and II, averaging over 30,000 fatalities per day” (Thompson).

Reason 3: “The leaders of nuclear powers are not only unwilling to go to war, but they go to great lengths to constrain their allies and partners from engaging in conflicts that might eventually drag them in a conflict with another nuclear armed state” (Lowther). “The subsequent absence of Great Power conflict has coincided with a dramatic and sustained reduction in the number of lives lost to war globally” (Thompson).

Transition: While global peace is important, national security takes precedence.

4. Third Argument: National security is every country’s priority, and nuclear weapons assist that goal.

Opposing view: The opposite side believes that nuclear weapons do not protect a nation because of the possibility of a nuclear fallout.

Your view: However, nuclear weapons deter other countries from attacking a country with nuclear weapons for the same reason the opposing side dislikes nuclear weapons.

Reason 1: “If nuclear arms are outlawed, only outlaws will have nuclear arms” (“Eliminating Nuclear Weapons Will Not Make the World Safer”).

Reason 2: “Since the United States cannot predict what the level of the threat will be decades in the future, it is critical that the U.S. maintain a nuclear enterprise that can respond to changes in the global security environment” (“U.S. Nuclear Weapons Capability”).

Reason 3: “Additionally, our NATO and Eastern European allies rely America’s nuclear weapons to deter a Russian conventional attack. Declaring that we would only use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack encourages our adversaries to contemplate other kinds of devastating attacks” (“Ground Truth: Nuclear Weapons: Essential, Affordable, Cornerstone of Our Defense”).

Transition/Conclusion: Nuclear weapons benefit every person in a variety of ways.

5. Concluding Statements:

A. Bring paper to close: Nuclear weapons are a critical asset to every country aspiring to maintain global peace and national safety in effective ways.

B: reason for hope, responsibilities: It is the responsibility of every citizen to advocate for the safety of their homeland by signing petitions and electing representatives that also believe in the necessity of nuclear weapons.

C. Strong statement: Nuclear weapons hold a pivotal role in protecting your life, and in return, we should protect it as well.