How many countries have wmds

Facing invasion from formidable Mongol forces, central European princes temporarily placed their regional conflicts aside to defend their territory.

Though the Mongols were slowly pushed eastward, they loomed large on the fringes of Europe until almost the 16th century. A pivotal moment for Lithuania came after a decisive win at the Battle of Blue Waters. This victory stifled the expansion of the Golden Horde, and brought present-day Ukraine into its sphere of influence. The end of the Holy Roman Empire highlights the extreme territorial fragmentation in Germany and neighboring regions, in an era referred to as Kleinstaaterei.

Unification helped position Germany as a major power, and by the country had the largest economy in Europe. The Ottoman Empire—a fixture in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years—was in its waning years by the beginning of the 20th century.

The empire had ceded territory in two costly wars with Italy and Balkan states, and by the time the dust cleared on WWI, the borders of the newly minted nation of Turkey began at the furthest edge of continental Europe. After the war, Germany again became fragmented into occupation zones—this time, overseen by the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Germany would not be made whole again until , when a weakening Soviet Union loosened its grip on East Germany.

In the decades following WWII, the political boundaries of the European map remained relatively stable—that is, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in When the dust settled, there were 15 breakaway republics , six of which were in Europe. Bonus: If you liked the video above, be sure to watch this year-by-year account of who ruled territories across Europe. The index measures the social risk landscape of different cities across the globe, using three key pillars:. After calculating scores based on these three metrics, cities were then grouped into four categories to measure their level of social risk:.

Of the top places, Istanbul and Izmir rank the highest when it comes to overall human rights risks, largely because of labor rights violations and the exploitation of migrant and refugee workers.

This is something manufacturers should take note of, especially those who outsource production to these Turkish cities. Other major manufacturing and commercial hubs in China, like Guangzhou and Shanghai, place high on the list as well. While a third of the top FDI cities are at high or extreme social risk, this figure is even higher when looking at all cities included in the [email protected] Social Index.

In addition to the overall ranking, the report provides insight into specific human rights violations, highlighting which cities are most at risk. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pyongyang, North Korea places first on the list when it comes to civil and political rights violations. Under the current North Korean regime, some significant civil rights violations include arbitrary arrests and detentions, the holding of political prisoners and detainees, and a lack of judicial independence.

In addition to North Korea, Syria places high on the civil rights risk index as well, with three of the top five cities located in the war-torn country. Pakistan in particular struggles with child labor issues, with an estimated 3. Connect with us. These five countries are called nuclear-weapon states - and are allowed to have weapons because they built and tested a nuclear explosive device before the treaty came into effect on 1 January Even though these countries have nuclear weapons, under the agreement, they have to reduce how many they have and can't keep them forever.

Israel which has never confirmed or denies the existence of its nukes , India and Pakistan have never joined the NPT, and North Korea left in Iran started its nuclear programme in the s and has always insisted its nuclear energy programme is peaceful.

But there have been suspicions it was being used as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, which prompted the UN Security Council, US and EU to impose crippling sanctions from This led to an agreement in between Iran and other big powers, in which Iran signed a deal to scale back its nuclear energy programme in exchange for trade, but President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in May And now European countries have challenged Iran for not following the terms of the deal.

And after the escalating tensions between Iran and the US this year, President Trump has pledged that as long as he is president, Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. After increased tensions over the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by the US in Baghdad, Iran has said it's not going to follow the restrictions imposed by the deal anymore.

The number of nuclear weapons in the world is actually down from 70, in to around 14, today. In July , it looked as though the world was a step closer to becoming nuclear weapon free when more than countries endorsed a UN treaty to ban them altogether. The UK and France have said the agreement didn't take into account the realities of international security - and nuclear deterrence has been important to keeping peace for more than 70 years. While countries like the UK and US are reducing their nuclear stockpile, experts say they are still modernising and upgrading their existing armoury.

And North Korea continues to test and develop its nuclear programme with missile tests as recent as October. So while the world may have fewer nukes today than it did 30 years ago, it doesn't look like you'll be seeing a complete end any time soon. Listen to Newsbeat live at and weekdays - or listen back here.

Reality Check: Where are the world's nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons also have radioactive fallout, where debris is picked up by winds into the atmosphere and then settles back to Earth days later. Nuclear weapons produce more death, destruction, injury, and sickness than any other single weapon.

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States caused both countries to increase the number of their nuclear weapons. At their peak, the Soviet Union had a total of 33, operational warheads and the United States had 32, After the Soviet Union disintegrated, thousands of nuclear weapons on both sides were dismantled. Because of the broad lethality and destruction of these weapons, governments have negotiated arms control agreements such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty NPT of Under the treaty, NWS are not allowed to assist NNWS in developing nuclear weapons, and NWS have the inalienable right to research, develop, and use nuclear energy for non-weapon purposes.