Essential Question # 3 How is arms proliferation a threat to mankind?

Proficient (4)Competent (3)Beginning mastery (2)No Mastery (1)Unable to score (0) Student clearly and completely explains how arms proliferation causes conflict, using significant details and examples. Student explains how arms proliferation causes conflict, using details and examples Student attempts to explain how arms proliferatio n causes conflict but details are vague or lacking. Student is unable to explain how arms proliferatio n causes conflict. Blank, illegible, off-topic, or too brief to score. How is arms proliferation a threat to mankind?

Landmines: A Growing Threat to Mankind -Cheap to make; being made faster than being removed -Expensive to remove; they move, mine field maps are inaccurate or missing -Maim and kill long after the conflict is over -Kill civilians more than combatants (Cambodia, Afghanistan)

Chemical Weapons: A Growing Threat to Mankind -cheap and easy to make; non-state entities can produce them -very dangerous to those not involved and outside of the war zone -disposal is difficult; dangerous for us (civilians) and the environment -these are so hideous and inhumane that they have been banned by treaty (CWC) Mention: Syria WW I

Biological Weapons: A Growing Threat to Mankind -hard to control once released (British anthrax experiments with sheep) -would kill more civilians than combatants (Japanese actually designed them for that purpose in their war with China) -failing state’s stockpiles could fall into the wrong hands -aging weapons are dangerous -these have also been banned by international treaty because they are so hideous

Nuclear Weapons: A Growing Threat to Mankind -if attacked by nukes the only defense is a counterattack (all die; MAD) -good chance of a false alarm (seagulls, fake training programs) -weapons hidden so well that radio contact could be cut (submarines, mobile missiles) -small conflict could escalate into Armageddon (Cuban Missile Crisis 1962) -rogue states are now joining the “nuclear club” (North Korea, Iran) -nations that have already fought major wars with each other now have them (Pakistan and India; 3 wars) -chance of war is increased when developing nations have them; lack careful controls to prevent accidental launching, close to each other (Pakistan and India) -when one country gets them its neighboring rivals want them to = arms race Israel Iran Turkey Saudi Arabia -disposal is difficult and expensive as we found out in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine

Weapons in General: A Growing Threat to Mankind Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. — Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953 You might also want to mention how small arms pose the greatest threat since they are so cheap, easy to get, and without a doubt, cause the greatest harm to the greatest number!