Lacera Otalora 1

Hector Felipe Lacera Otalora

Tara Tatum
ENC 1101
07/27/2015
The chain effects of a government cooperating with terrorist groups
The world suffers a major threat whenever terrorist groups cooperate with any
government to achieve weaponization. When dealing with foreign affairs, countries have their
own agenda to further their interest and promote their development. Particularly, Irans interest in
nuclear proliferation and terrorist action have made the United States list Iran as a terrorist
sponsorship nation. Since the Islamic revolution of 1979 Iran has been governed by a Shia
Islamist regime that has achieved total hegemonic control. This extremist regime has been
collaborating with the groups of Hamas and Hezbollah since the beginning of the nineteenth
century. The groups have been sponsored by the government of Tehran to conduct their illicit
activities which include the appropriation of weapons and nuclear materials, and training of
personal. The international community has seen the direct effects of having an organized terrorist
group on the loose when the attack on the twin towers happened on American soil. The attacks
made to New York on September 11 2001, prove the threat of having terrorist groups further
their activities without control. Governments supporting terrorist activities pose a dangerous
threat of an apocalypse to the world.
Terrorist groups fostered by the government of Iran have vast access to weaponry and
research catalogs that are dangerous to every other country. Being able to access governments
armory provides terrorist groups with plenty of arms to accomplish their goals. Hamas and

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Hezbollah in particular, have international enemies (Including most countries in the Middle East,
North America and Wester Europe) which would be vulnerable to the use of weapons provided
by the government. Furthermore, if terrorist groups are able to access the research data on
weaponry, then they would be able to create and develop weapons by themselves. A special case
of this is the acquisition and subsequent creation of nuclear weapons. These pose the major threat
to nations that are enemies to both Hamas and Hezbollah as they are the most powerful type of
weapons ever created. Erik Gartzke and Matthew Kroenig are leading political scientists that
pursue the investigation of nuclear proliferation. They worry about the easiness of nations and
terrorist groups to obtain nuclear materials due to the creation of a black market by Pakistani
scientist A.Q. Khan. Indeed the nuclear ring created by Dr. Khan has increased the nuclear ring
in the Middle East by 40% since 2007. Moreover, investigations made by the National
Intelligence Estimate have brought forward have made studies of the Iranian Nuclear Program
that revealed earlier plans to attack specific countries. The easiness to acquire nuclear materials,
the encouragement by the government of Tehran and the plans to attack other countries make
would cause an ultimate nuclear attack to one or more of Irans enemies, the beginning of the
apocalypse.
As a consequence of the Iranian government allowing and furthering terrorist groups,
other nations would respond with force. In the past the United Nations have placed multiple
embargos and sanctions made to Iran as it refused to allow the revision its nuclear program. The
United Nations declares that America has considered armed response against the Iranian threat,
but Bushs administration opposed an armed response and instead sought diplomatic agreements.
Still the option of an armed response against Iran is always in consideration. As soon as the first
attack is made to another country by Iran, the current diplomatic approach would not be a viable

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option anymore and the international community would need to make a swift decision. Ward
Wilson a publisher in Rethinking Nuclear Weapons has published an extensive study on nuclear
proliferation starting since the end of World War II. In his article The Winning Weapon he
argues that the United States used the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to pound Japan
into submission, because Japan would not surrender otherwise. The level field was in favor of the
United States since it was the only nation to have access to such powerful weapons. He then
compared the situation to the Cold War, a level field in which both the United States and the
USSR had both access to nuclear weapons. Along with the availability of the nuclear weapon he
came up with variables to evaluate the level field of a nation. These were: nuclear proliferation,
nuclear cooperation, frequency of conflict, intensity of conflict, outcome of conflict, and
diplomatic influence. At this point he points out that both the Unites States and the USSR were
on similar level fields and thus no country ended up attacking the other. After Iran attacks
another country, these variables would work against Iran; other countries are armed with nuclear
weapons and are ready to attack back to retaliate. The follow-up of the nuclear holocaust.
Seeing that nations are vulnerable and treaties are broken less privileged and antagonist
countries would use their nuclear arsenal against major countries in the world. In the quest to
further their influence and power countries like North Korea which has less than ten nuclear
warheads would use its whole arsenal against its enemies, namely the United States and its allies.
The United States hosts nuclear weapons from different countries as well as myriad of alliances
around the globe. Would the dictatorship of North Korea attack the United States, the countries
in the alliance would retaliate against it. A major country like China could participate at this
point in the conflict. Evaluating the variables in Wilsons work, China would have the level field
on his favor since at that point the conflict is 100% against the American government. Since

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China is fully weaponized with nuclear warheads it would not hesitate to use these against the
United States. The United States would indeed respond to this attack with its own warheads. By
conflict induction, other countries would follow this same pattern causing the devastation of
continents as a whole. The apocalypse on its climax.
Besides the loss of millions of lives, the Earth would be a true post-apocalyptic scene.
Only a few would be able to survive such waves of destruction from more than 22,000 nuclear
weapons. Countries would be completely destroyed leaving no wealth to those who survive.
Similarly resources would be scarce as the heat and radiation produced by these warheads
deteriorates essential organic materials such as the carbonyl groups and amino acids necessary
for survival. The mere concept of a nation would mere to exist since governments would not be
able to exist after allowing such destruction caused by a cross-fire between governments.
Anarchy would be the rule of the land as the few percentage of people who make up this
surviving society would not be able to trust each other as they have experienced how diplomacy
between nations failed. At that point, the apocalyptic picture of humans killing each other would
be the survival of the fittest.
Without a doubt the cooperation of a nations government with an armed terrorist group
has the potential to bring an apocalypse towards the world. Taking as factors the self-interest of
each nation to promote its own agenda and the illicit ways of a terrorist organization lead to the
subsequent attack between nations using its most powerful arsenal of nuclear weapons. Most of
the human population would be wiped away, anarchy would become the way of living of the
survivors who find that resources are very scarce. All these effects resemble a nuclear holocaust
caused by the cross-fire of nuclear weapons between nations.

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References:
The National Security Archive. The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II A Collection of
Primary Sources. Ed. Burr William, 27 Apr. 2007.
Hersh, Seymour M. Iran And The Bomb. Annals Of National Security (2011): n. pag. Web. 15
Jul. 2015.
Gartzke, Erik and Kroenig, Matthew. A Strategic Approach to Nuclear Proliferation Belfer
Center for Science and International Affairs files. (2008): n. pag. Web. 15 Jul. 2015.
United Nations. Office for Disarmament Affairs. Nuclear Weapons. Weapons of mass
destruction disarmament. United Nations. Web. 15. Jul. 2015.
Wilson, Ward. The Winning Weapon? Rethinking Nuclear Weapons (2007): n. pag. Web. 22
Jul. 2015