Is war Inevitable When a Country Develops a New "Wonder Weapon" that Most Other Countries don't Have?

If you look back in the history of war this is, indeed the situation in many cases. Super weapons based on physics and other sciences have touched off many wars, but they have also been important in the defense of many countries. A good example is Great Britain in WW II. A fundamental breakthrough occurred early in the war in relation to radar. The cavity magnetron was invented and it revolutionized radar. Objects as small as a few inches across could now be detected, and one of these objects was submarine periscopes, and as a result the German U-boats soon became much less effective. In addition the British radar system could now detect German planes soon after they were in the air, and it gave them a tremendous advantage. Strangely, the Germans didn't think radar was very important, but they found out the hard way that it was. It was particularly effective in the Battle of Britain.
     Although the atomic and hydrogen bombs were invented over half  a century ago, they are still the wonder weapons that many small counties would like to have. I suppose they feel that it gives them more power, prestige and influence on the world stage. And many people believe it will be a small country that will initiate a war that ends up spreading throughout the world. We hope, of course, that this isn't true, and it's important that we do everything possible to make sure it doesn't happen.

Barry Parker, author of "The Physics of War: From Arrows to Atoms"