Zbrojenia i kontrola zbrojeń w 2021 r. Nowe wyzwania, stare problemy
Armaments and arms control in 2021. New challenges, old problems

Summary/Abstract: The events of 2021 revealed numerous challenges for the existing arms control and disarmament mechanisms. Although the United States and Russia extended the New START treaty and the required number of states ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, thus making it effective, the actual impact of the nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime was weakened because of a number of processes. These were, in particular, Iran’s intensified efforts regarding its nuclear programme involving large-scaled Uranium enrichment, development of North Korea’s missile capabilities, and the counter-reaction from South Korea. Moreover, controversy was caused by a pledge to provide Australia with nuclear submarines as an element of the AUKUS pact. The Russian withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, in reaction to the analogous move from the US a year before, proved once again the weakness of the arms control regime. Furthermore, the year 2021 brought dynamic development of modern military technologies not as yet restrained by any international regulations limiting and regulating them – anti-satellite weapons and hypersonic weapons. The former revealed the increasing risk of space militarization and a necessity to establish new mechanisms of control by the international community. In turn, intensive work on hypersonic weapons by the US, Russia, and China increasingly resembles an arms race in its characteristics, discussed in the article, and in their impact on the global balance of power.

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