Nuclear Weapons: Then and Now Politics, especially on an international level, is a complex and messy subject. One simply has to open up a newspaper or tune into the evening news for evidence. While many problems can be resolved peacefully through negotiations, there are problems in international relations that manage to escalate quickly and result in a war between two or more countries. From revolutionary wars to World Wars, violence has always been part of international relations. However, with recent technological advancements, wars have taken an especially deadly turn. Advanced weaponry has allowed soldiers to become more “efficient” when fighting a battle allowing them to kill many more enemy combatants and innocent bystanders. The most devastating of these newly created weapons are nuclear weapons such as the atomic and hydrogen bombs. These weapons have the capacity to eliminate hundreds of thousands of people, obliterate cities, and possibly end life on earth, as we know it. The most destructive of these weapons was tested by the Soviets in 1961 during the Cold War. The hydrogen bomb that was being tested had a destructive power of approximately 60 megatons. The Soviets formally named the bomb Ivan, but nicknamed it the “King of Bombs.” Originally, Ivan was going to be constructed with a power of 100 megatons, but the Soviets decided it was too risky and dangerous. To put this in perspective, a single megaton can create temperatures that are five times as intense as the center of the sun. These weapons essentially contain enough power to devastate if not completely destroy our planet. Due to the potential dangers and stigma of using nuclear weapons, they have fortunately been used only a handful of times. A bomb as powerful as Ivan has not been built since let alone used in actual warfare. In fact, only two atomic bombs have ever been used in combat.