Till recently, the world was torn between two conflicting ideologies. On the one hand, there was communism and, on the other, there was capitalism. The champions of the former ideology are the communist countries like Russia and China. The later ideology is supported by countries like America, England and France. Thus the whole world, with the exception of non-aligned countries like India, was divided into two rival camps. The ideological war between the two rival groups gave rise to a mad race for armament. The problem was how to stop this race. How should the nations be persuaded to give up this race for arms? This is the problem of disarmament.
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Unprecedented development is taking place in technological and scientific fields. But this is being directed primarily towards designing the latest and most powerful weapons. Nuclear arms like atom and hydrogen bombs have been perfected. There are supersonic jet planes which fly at the speed of sound. But in spite of all this progress, the two biggest nations were not satisfied. They perfected rockets and launched their artificial planets in outer space. This meant expenditure of huge amounts.
The armament race exposed the whole world to great danger. Such devices were perfected that any corner of the world be attacked within no time. Not only this, even the testing of nuclear weapons in air and in oceans became a serious problem. It was feared that even without war the whole atmosphere will be vitiated, if such tests were not stopped.
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Thinkers, politicians, philosophers, rulers and scientists, began to realize the gravity of the problem. They feared that if no solution to this monstrous problem was found, the future of the world would be dark. Enlightened public opinion all over the world started expressing its concern over this issue. Summit conferences of the leaders of the two mighty groups were arranged at Geneva and other places to discuss the problem and to explore some solutions.
But there was distrust, suspicion and fear, on either side, about the intentions and actions of the other. Both Russia and America felt that they will cease to be the dominating world power, if they did not have the most modern weapons. Sometimes, such conditions were advance by both the sides that it becomes impossible to take any action in the right direction.
Now only one super-power is left in the field. The armament race has ended with the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. The U.S.A. is now the only super power left in the field. The former states which made up the Soviet Union have come together to form the Commonwealth of Independent states. They are neither in a mood nor in a position to continue the armament race. They are facing enormous economic problems and look to the U.S.A. for help. There are internal tensions and conflicts in Russia, the largest and the most powerful state of the commonwealth. So there is no armament race now. Disarmament is now the new slogan of the countries of the world.