Various Component Drafts for Issue Brief

Exordium: It is estimated that between only 9 nations, over 15,000 nuclear warheads are still in existence today. The United States and Russia alone maintain about 1,800 of their warheads on high alert, ready to be launched at a second's notice. However, regardless of the widespread international threat posed by detonating nuclear weapons, the U.S. has failed to successfully pursue additional courses of disarmament with other nations around the globe.

Working Thesis: Even though the maintenance of large nuclear arsenals increases the risks of other countries and malicious organizations from obtaining them, the United States and other nations have failed to disarm. The only guarantee for a nuclear-free world requires the total and immediate elimination of nuclear arsenals, but this action lacks in feasibility. A more practical approach for reducing risk requires the U.S. to lead a global effort to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals.

Narrative:
In 1945, the first nuclear bomb test was conducted under the Manhattan Project in the United States. Within that same year, the U.S. dropped two nuclear warheads over the imperial nation of Japan, killing over a hundred thousands civilians. Over the years, as various nations began developing more advanced nuclear weapons that dealt more power. In 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the Tsar Bomba which produced a 50-megaton blast, which is 3,333 more more powerful than the bomb that the U.S. dropped on Japan. The mushroom cloud alone ascended more than 130,000 feet into the atmosphere. More than four Mount Everests could fit beneath the mushroom.

The U.S. alone accounts for more than 6,800 warheads. In addition, the U.S. spends more on nuclear warheads then the next 8 countries combined, including Russia who has an estimated 7,000 weapons. Modernizing the delivery system of the weapons has become increasing more important for the U.S. as this gives a tactical advantage should a nuclear attack take place on our own soil.

Partition:

• nuclear arsenal statistics 
• nuclear warhead increased effectiveness statistics
• more information on the risk factors of maintaining WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
• in depth view and analysis of why the warheads have remained and why they are continuing to be modernized
•  what needs to be accomplished:
• Increased awareness and political pressure
• reduced active warhead count 
• increased funding elsewhere

Sources:
http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/nuclear-arsenals/

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a23306/nuclear-bombs-powerful-today/