Are weapons apt enough ?

Hominids used weapons as early as five million years ago. Even the use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees. Elapsed time showed a swift evolution in armaments and its usage due to progression in technology. From bronze age sword, wooden clubs, spears and unshaped stones to atom bombs, nuclear weapons and now even more advance automatic weapons. From using them for security, hunting, law enforcement, self defence and warfare to conquest lands and as an emblem of power, growth and development. Which is accompanied by colossal demand for armaments. Arms industry is a thriving global industry with total international trade in arms now worth about $100 Bn per year.

Its often said that the war is good as conflicts drives up demand for weapons and defence equipment and it appears last year was a bumper year. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says global military spending grew to $ 1.92 trillion that is more than 7% increase over 10 years. Five countries account for more than 60% of the world's military expenditure. The US is far the world's largest spender at $732 Bn thats more than a third of the global military budget. China is second with $ 261 Bn and than India with $ 71 Bn. 

      But are these so called super advance weapons apt enough to save humanity ? 

The present coronavirus pandemic makes this question inevitable. Our healthcare system falied miserably against the pandemic. We have all seen the poor shape of France and Spain , they are among the top five countries in health care index ,wereas US ranked 30th and India and China on 38th and 47th positon reaspectively. What virus is shown that health care is an awful lot more important than military powers. You can't use nuclear weapon or an air craft carrier against a virus. 

            "A heavily armed world is not necessarily a safer world " 

We accept that military expenditure is necessary, but that in these gigantic figures on cost of social welfare is groundless. Also we cannot repudiate that the probability of using these highly advance weapons is extremely low. Military spending crowd out social welfare expenditure. The evidence seems to suggest that devoting more resources to military creats inequalities in the country. The real cost of defence sector also includes an element of growth that could have been achieved through larger investments in human or business capital in form of education or health care. Which can make a huge difference in case of developing countries like India. To deal with this in 2014 the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) came into force, with the aim of regulating the international trade in conventional weapons . ATT is an incredibly weak piece of legislation says critics. Is it so difficult to develop a world free from violence. A peaceful and violence free world appears a hypothetical situation at present. But this cannot be achieved by an individual country or a group of countries. It requires international solution, political will and more impactful peace keeping treaties. Countries should come together to some sort of agreement or some sort of deplomatic channels to establish uncompromising regulations and independent institutions to shield the peace and harmony of the world.

               World peace can be achieved when, in each person, 

             the power of love replaces the love for power-Sri chinmay