Exploring Web Resources on Weapons of Mass Destruction (wmds)

The main significance of a Webography is that it gives a detailed account of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). This analysis thus aims at establishing the various websites that offer data on the various elements of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The discussions on the detrimental consequences of WMDs is still a subject of significant interest among several establishments with the leading being the government and international institutions, organizations and community who have continuously purposed to raise awareness on the matter. The end goal of these initiatives is to come up with the best plan on denuclearization. Based on this brief background, this webography sets forth to give relevant information and images of WMD from seven websites with the aim of painting a clear picture for the reader so as to get the full picture of the WMD phenomenon.

The “Learn about Nuclear Weapons' website is a platform moderated by Sweden Physicians. This is a politically independent and non-profit platform that is against the whole concept of Nuclear Weapons. Learn about Nuclear Weapons comprises of about nearly 3000 members who are mainly medical and physician students. This establishment is further a member of the World Federation of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, IPPNW. IPPNW is one of the bodies strongly opposed to the use of nuclear bodies. The inputs of this body are extremely remarkable, and their efforts were recognised in 1985, where, IPPNW received a Nobel Peace Price (Hamidi, 2019).

Learn about Nuclear Weapons website has an extensively discussed the topics on the politics, consequences and history of WMD under the nuclear weapons entry. The 3000 members of this institution offer data on how the world understand and perceive the WMDs alongside the examples as a means of educating the public on approaches that can be used to get rid of these deadly weapons.

This platform is thus very important for any studies on the regulations and response of WMDs. One of the reasons for this claim is based on the fact that the website offers different viewpoints of WMDs by international communities. Additionally, Learn about Nuclear Weapons discusses the politics on WMDs where discussions on consequences and history of the same have been made.

The section discussing the relevant information on WMDs is the essential resource out of all other discussions. This is mainly because all relevant accounts of WMDs have been documented, and thus for a researcher or interested reader, one can readily understand and point out the areas to focus on. All data available on the website have further been written in a brief manner which makes it easy for the readers to get the overall picture of relevant data on WDMs. All content has been displayed in a manner that visitors can readily understand the technical elements and nature of the WMDs.

An area that however needs improvement is on the fact that this platform does not give external links to new and upcoming data of WMDs. This is a weakness since the readers cannot access additional information and topics on WMDs that are available of the external source but not referenced on the website.

Atomic Archive

Founded by Chris Griffith, Atomic Archive is a website created by AJ Software & Multimedia. This website was created with the sole purpose of bringing awareness and understanding to the consequences, history and science of the atomic age to the general public, educators and students (MacDonald and Hunter, 2019). Based in San Diego, California, AJ Software & Multimedia created this platform to examine the complex history of the atomic bomb which a lot has not been documented on especially at the time of its inception (Hamidi, 2019). The website thus gives a detailed account of the discovery as well as the history of the inception and maturing of atomic bombs and nuclear fission and its significance in warfare. Another interesting area of discussion on the website is the ensuing cold war, hydrogen bomb development and atomic bomb race (Mansbach and Taylor, 2019). The positive and negative aftermaths of nuclear fission have also been explored as well as the science that informed it. The website has a wide collection of related photos aimed at giving the reader a mental picture of all angles covered.

Out of every feature implemented in the website, the one that stood out and I can further argue to be the most valuable is the way AJ Software & Multimedia laid out the history section in chronological order. I term this feature as the most valuable one primarily because it makes it easy for a visitor to navigate the section. Another important factor about the website in the simplistic design AJ Software & Multimedia settled on. Due to its simple design, visitors can effortlessly find what they are looking for.

Regardless of these positive traits, the outstanding downside of this website is the fact that the section on mitigation attempts to avoid nuclear proliferation has not been highlighted, and a detailed discussion is given. Other than that, the Atomic archive website is an important platform where one can readily find detailed information on the history of nuclear weapons as well as their damaging effects.

Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction

According to Seybert (2019), the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction should be one of the go-to platforms for any research or educational material on the effects of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) both in the USA and global population. The Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction website gives not only detailed but relevant information on the approaches to take in the war against the rapid increase of the weapons of mass destructions. This, among other complementary discussions, makes this platform an important one for anyone interested in examining publications on WMD. The website has also gone a step further to provide specialist guidance on the technical discussion in the specialized field and alongside biographies of the specialists in their relevant fields. This website's layout is simple, just like the typical layout in the majority of the government website. Due to its simple design, it is easy for any visitor to access the content with ease. Additionally, the simple interface used makes it easy for one to move from one section to another. This is a website that basically addresses every element of WMDs as well as the counter-proliferation which can be searched based on the publication type, region and topic.

Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction has an additional advantage that most sites on WDMs fail to capture; this is the fact that the platform breakdown the discussion of WMDs to different types. What this does is places the articles with the most significant as the first while those that are deemed least important have been placed last. It is, however, important to offer a review of the publications referenced in the site for a better picture and analysis of the WMD counter-proliferation to be realized. Additionally, to understand the different perspectives of WMDs and all that occurred since the introduction of nuclear weapons, it is necessary to conduct an analysis of its history.

Generally, this website is a good source of WMDs however the fact that it fails to give data on the basic concepts of a nuclear weapon which is an important discussion on the history and evolution of these weapons is limiting. A second limitation is based on the fact that the website does to give an analysis of the relevant and recent data on WMDs which are also important discussions informing this whole discussion. Other than the two shortcomings, this website is an important one in the discussion and understanding of WMDs as it has innumerable articles on the topic.

Nuclear Files

Established in 1982, the nuclear files is a website aimed at empowering peace leaders as well as advocating and educating the public on the need to have a peaceful and world free of any nuclear weapons (Mansbach and Taylor, 2019). This website was a project by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is a non-partisan and non-profit organization offering consulting services to the UN.

Nuclear files website offers a wide range of information regarding the WMDs which range from the ethical dilemmas in the nuclear era, space weapons, missile defense, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. The most crucial part of this website is on the atomic history timeline. This is because it gives a detailed account of what WMDs are as defined in different eras. The website is further very easy to navigate due to the availability of numerous exploring options.

Some of the ways of doing this is doing a search based on the keywords, date or category of interest. Another approach the website has a 'key Issues' option which a user can access and locate different articles on WMDs as explained on current discussions. The 'Key Issues' option is a unique element of this website that the other website discussed above does not have, which makes the exploration process easier.

Nuclear Files website also has a library section which has external links, biographies, opinion polls, media gallery and treaty documents linked to the WMDs. The library section is extremely significant in the case of this examination primarily because it has numerous data on international powers in WMD proliferation.

The platform further has discussions on nuclear energy and this information has been made available to the public regardless of the negative consequences nuclear innovation has been associated with to man’s existence. These are discussions that have been conducted in a positive note to highlight the positive elements of nuclear energy. The main limitation noticed in this website is the point that with the numerous discussion topics available on WMD, very few topics give an in-depth analysis and explanation of the topic given. Secondly, there are no discussions from sources that counter-proliferation which would have added more weight to the main topics addressed.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization commonly referred to as NATO is a website that addresses the WMDs as well as their consequences, delivery system and proliferation. NATO's role is to guarantee the security and freedom of the member states using military and political approaches (Mansbach and Taylor, 2019).

NATO has very relevant and good images which readily grabs the visitor’s attention. The website is further available in four different languages suiting a larger audience compared to those available in one language.

This website gives a detailed account of different summits that were held to reinforce partnership, launch the key initiatives, invite new states into the Alliance and introduce new policies. The main features in this website that are relevant in this examination are the e-library and the newsroom. Another important element is the certainties which Seybert (2019), explains are given to the readers as an indication that the partners of this organization take part in and also have an interest in the legislative issues of disarmament, non-proliferation and arms of control. Out of all the websites analyzed in this discussion, the content and features on WMD available on this website make it a source with the most to offer.

Arms Control Association

The Arms Control Association is a website aimed at offering support and creating public awareness of effective arms control policies (MacDonald and Hunter, 2019). This is an organization established in 1971 and is a national nonpartisan. Information provided in the website is geared towards getting rid of the prejudicial implications currently being experienced due to weapons of mass destruction.

This website proves to have the most resourceful content for researchers interested in investigating the regulation of WMD. This is mainly because the platform provides the public and policymakers with the needed authoritative data, analysis and commentary on all angles of security matters and arms control

Arms Control Association website operates like a journal, and as a result, users can get quick and easy access to recent data and updates on WMD. For the users interested in accessing earlier publications on the topic can readily achieve this since the platform has permanently maintained documents. Among other things, the website has a detailed analysis on matters concerning WMDs allowing the readers to get a better understanding of WMDs issues on a national and global state. These are some of the content and interesting topics of discussion that widen the scope of WMDs as well as point out the challenges and impediments likely to be faced in the journey of realizing non-proliferation.

Arms Control Association website also has the blog feature which Mansbach and Taylor (2019) point out is a feature very few websites have. Blogs are an important asset to this website since it gives additional data to the readers; however, researchers tend to disagree on their worth. The resource tab additionally gives different valuable information on treaties signed with the earliest going as far as 1963. The topics are also presented in a chronological order making it easy to explore different discussions.

The limitations of this platform, however, are the fact that it mainly based on news articles as opposed to relying on actual policies which are more authentic. In an era of fake news, the possibility of posting fake news from a fake source is relatively high; thus, the Arms Control Association website needs to rely more on facts as opposed to opinions.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a website that engages the general public, policy-makers and science leaders on discussions regarding emerging technologies, climate change and nuclear weapons and disarmament (Seybert, 2019). The platform also gives updated content of the existing WMD issues affecting the world. The website also has external links to all content posted for the purpose of further analysis by interested users. The platform is also easy to navigate and gain access to needed topics.

The main weaknesses, however, is that the layout of the homepage is not ideal, making it challenging to access needed information. Secondly, this platform is very technical, and thus visitors without the needed technical knowledge have a challenge understanding the content. Regardless, this platform has important insight on WMD

Summary

All the website investigated have relevant information on the discussion of WMD. The external links broaden comprehension for interested readers and researchers; the layout makes it easy to navigate; lastly, timeline and detailed information provident significantly contributes to the discussion of weapons of mass destruction.

Each of the websites examined provided signiicant information on weapons of mass destruction and contributed greatly to the international discussion on this divided and heavily debated topic of nuclear energy. First, the timelines provided by several of the sites allows the reader to analyze events that played significant roles in the development of WMDs. Second, many of the sites offered fundamental information and technical concepts that set the foundation for this examination. Third, sites that included articles and publications from external links help broaden a reader’s understanding of the information presented and highlight current issues the world faces today.

References

1. Hamidi, S. (2019). Law as a discursive resource: the politics of the nuclear/non-nuclear distinction in the Non-Proliferation Treaty. European Journal of International Relations, 1354066119875999.
2. MacDonald, M. N., & Hunter, D. (2019). Discourse of Nuclear Proliferation. In The Discourse of Security (pp. 225-261). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
3. Mansbach, R. W., & Taylor, K. L. (2019). The North Korean Crisis: Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Threat of Nuclear War. In Contemporary Issues in International Political Economy (pp. 113-148). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
4. Seybert, A. (2019). Nuclear politics in the Mediterranean: Prospects and pitfalls of nuclear weapons programs in Middle Eastern states. Mediterranean Politics, 24(3), 384-391.