Nuclear portfolios Define which countries possess weapons of mass destruction and when do they use them?

Nine countries in the world possess nuclear weapons, each with a "bag" that contains the destruction of the world, while the responsibility for making the decision to push the button varies between each country.

Since its development in the 1930s, and its catastrophic experience on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the nuclear bomb has lined the contours of global horror, threatening humanity with annihilation if a full-scale conflict broke out in which it was used. Today, nine countries possess nuclear weapons, with a total arsenal of 13.5 thousand warheads, each with its own deterrent doctrine, and accordingly the laws, conditions and responsibility for deciding to use it differ from one country to another.

According to a report published by the French magazine "Le Point", quoting two experts in nuclear affairs, with regard to power in nuclear matters, there are two basic schools that differ between systems of the parliamentary type, within which the decision to use nuclear weapons is not subject to the authority of one individual, and the presidential type, as the decision is up to Basically to the president, while China and North Korea each follow their own style.

Parliamentary systems

On the basis of this classification identified by the French magazine, in parliamentary patterns, the decision to use nuclear weapons is not taken individually by a certain authority, but rather collectively. As an example, in India, although the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces, only the political council headed by the prime minister is authorized to authorize the use of nuclear weapons.

In Pakistan, the decision to use nuclear weapons is entrusted to the National Constituent Assembly, which must ratify it unanimously, and if that fails, the President of the National Constituent Assembly has the final say, and believes that both the Prime Minister and the Head of State must authorize the activation of the codes needed to decode the weapons nuclear.

In Israel, the prime minister does not have the power to decide whether to use nuclear weapons, and that decision is made by the Ministerial Committee in charge of National Security, made up of 7 to 10 members of the government.

Presidential systems

The two most prominent nuclear states in the world, which own the lion's share of the global arsenal of these weapons, are the United States of America and Russia. Both entrust the decision on nuclear deterrence to the President. But they are not the only ones who adopt this approach, but France, Britain and North Korea are added to them.

In the United States, the president is charged with the task of responding quickly and decisively to any possible nuclear aggression, through the nuclear briefcase in his custody and its secret codes that only he knows. As for the terms of their use, as defined during the second term of President Barack Obama's term, they include "a narrow range that these weapons can play in emergency situations." Biden had promised to define these conditions in pure deterrence, in what was called the "single purpose policy", that is, in deterring and responding to any nuclear attack against the country.

In the Russian case, Vladimir Putin also owns his nuclear portfolio, but the authorization to use nuclear weapons is granted by three people: the president, the defense minister, and the chief of the general staff. This permission can be granted either through Russia's Kazbek electronic command network, or through the Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons control system called Perimeter.

The French constitution recognizes that the country's president is the head of the armed forces, which authorizes him to make the decision to push the button to launch nuclear weapons. In the same way in Britain, this matter comes under the prerogative of the Prime Minister, but the decision is often made in consultation with the royal palace.

As for North Korea, the decision rests with the country's president and PLA leader Kim Jong Un.

Chinese model

For China, the nuclear forces are subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party, under the leadership of the president, and made up of 7 members, including the defense minister, chief of staff, and representatives from each corps of the armed forces.

The final decision in this model is for the president, as the only civilian leadership within the military commission, but it often rests with the political bureau of the party, which is the supreme political authority in the country.