Back Seat to Nuclear Weapons

I feel the most important issue which I learned in class was of the emergence of the nuclear age.  I feel that this is important due to the fact that it totally redefines war and also the future of war.  When I say nuclear age, I specifically mean the potential of every nation possessing nuclear weapons.  The importance of this is that any country, whether super power or  third world,  would then have the potential to destroy any opponent, for any reason.

  What makes this issue so important to not only me, but to the world population, are the repercussions which nuclear weapons possess. The problem is, "the no win aspect of nuclear weapons," as stated in "Strategic Nuclear Weapons" by James F. Dunnigan.  Any race, religion, or nation could be wiped out in the flick of a switch, and that effects every person on this planet.  Some may say that the nuclear age does not demand cognizance because the cold war is over, but it does because eleven  nations, and growing, currently posses nuclear war heads. In the past, ideals were the driving force in war, but now they take the back seat to nuclear weapons.