{"id":1454,"date":"2026-08-09T19:11:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/psir-pyq\/explain-the-socio-economic-impacts-of-arms-race-and-identify-the-upsc-psir-2016-3302\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:24:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:54:46","slug":"explain-the-socio-economic-impacts-of-arms-race-and-identify-the-upsc-psir-2016-3302","status":"publish","type":"psir_pyq","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/psir-pyq\/explain-the-socio-economic-impacts-of-arms-race-and-identify-the-upsc-psir-2016-3302\/","title":{"rendered":"Explain the socio-economic impacts of arms race and identify the obstacles in the way of disarmament."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Flow snapshot \u2014 how the answer moves<\/em><\/div>\n
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Intro routes<\/span><\/div>\n
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Route 1<\/i> arms race = competitive acquisition + advancement of military capability \u2192<\/span> burden falls on economies and societies \u2192<\/span> yet weapons stay, because they are believed to buy security \u2192<\/span> disarmament stalls in that gap<\/p>\n

Route 2<\/i> the Cold War priced the race: debt, welfare foregone, a collapsed USSR \u2192<\/span> yet no state surrendered the bomb \u2192<\/span> obstacle lies in what the bomb is thought<\/i> to be worth, and in a regime the excluded call unequal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Body flow<\/span><\/div>\n
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economic damage first \u2192<\/span> debt + dependency for arms importers \u2192<\/span> India\u2013Pakistan missile competition \u2192<\/span> Reagan\u2019s<\/b> renewed nuclear race + SDI (1983), never realised \u2192<\/span> strain \u2192<\/span> collapse of the USSR \u2192<\/span> economy could not match capitalist living standards \u2192<\/span> social cost = what goes unspent \u2192<\/span> armaments money withheld from human welfare \u2192<\/span> world under a \u201cbalance of terror\u201d \u2192<\/span> peak: Cuban Missile Crisis \u2192<\/span> hinge: Gavin<\/b> \u2014 the race also built a deterrent that prevented direct superpower conflict; Waltz<\/b> \u2014 nuclear weapons kept the Cold War \u201ccold\u201d \u2192<\/span> that belief is obstacle 1: no state gives up what it thinks keeps it safe \u2192<\/span> obstacle 2: the regime is itself unequal \u2192<\/span> Perkovich<\/b> \u2014 India + Pakistan outside NPT, unrecognised as NWS \u2192<\/span> 1995 indefinite extension read as discriminatory \u2192<\/span> NWS resistance blocks CTBT + FMCT \u2192<\/span> 2017 ban treaty: no major nuclear power in it \u2192<\/span> verification hard \u2192<\/span> moral pressure fails on Iran \/ North Korea \u2192<\/span> China will not scrap its arsenal \u2192<\/span> Perkovich<\/b> & Acton<\/b> \u2014 weakened US umbrella \u2192<\/span> Japan + South Korea towards the bomb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Counter-view<\/span><\/div>\n
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Kissinger<\/b> \u2014 deterrence assumes rational actors \u2192<\/span> the security defence relied on by every nuclear state is itself unsafe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Conclusion routes<\/span><\/div>\n
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Route 1<\/i> Simpson<\/b> \u2014 universal + verifiable + non-discriminatory process \u2192<\/span> cost alone has never disarmed anyone \u2192<\/span> India\u2019s No First Use shows restraint is possible \u2192<\/span> it spreads only when the excluded accept the order as equal<\/p>\n

Route 2<\/i> the obstacle is political, not technical \u2192<\/span> verification can be engineered, equality cannot be faked \u2192<\/span> India\u2019s No First Use as the model \u2192<\/span> Simpson\u2019s<\/b> three conditions as the way forward<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"pyq_year":[42],"pyq_marks":[31],"pyq_topic":[76],"pyq_paper":[69],"class_list":["post-1454","psir_pyq","type-psir_pyq","status-publish","hentry","pyq_year-42","pyq_marks-20-marks","pyq_topic-changing-international-political-order","pyq_paper-paper-2"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_pyq\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_pyq"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/psir_pyq"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_pyq\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4866,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_pyq\/1454\/revisions\/4866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"pyq_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pyq_year?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"pyq_marks","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pyq_marks?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"pyq_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pyq_topic?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"pyq_paper","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pyq_paper?post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}