Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty: INF

Abstract

Termination of the announcement of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) by President Donald Trump shows the direction of US nuclear weapons development. This termination stimulates the military competition and accumulate nuclear weapons in the world under the changing world polarity from superpowers to multi-polar. The article demonstrates background and basics of tension relief from installation and development of nuclear capability by which retaliation between the West and the East in European continental.  The success in nuclear weapons controlling is marked as the beginning of the end of the Cold War era later.  Moreover, it had provided lessons learn in the past known as "Thucydides’s Trap", the historic security environment that enplaned the cause of war on the Greek peninsula between Sparta as the original superpower and Athen as rising power. Thucydides’s Trap is originated by the fear to loss power of Sparta which compared to the US. behaviour by seeking power and expanding military capability.  According to the Trump’s election campaign of “America first”, exerting that the US. may return to international policy on nuclear weapons by "accumulating weapons"  instead of "controlling weapons".  Justified by maintaining  its power and survival of the Nation with regard to realism theory. Finally,  the article presents  and compares the differences between the concept of deterrence and the arms race factors among rival countries resulting from distrust and need of state to strengthen military capacity to ensure their security.