International Relations question structure.

I am not looking for someone to actually answer the following question, but I just need some advice with the structure. It is the question for a piece of second year university coursework and is therefore quite important I structure my answer correctly. The answer has to be between 1500 and 2000 words long. The question is the following:

'To what degree has nuclear and conventional weaponary proliferation been a stabilising or destabilising influence on the international system?'

I am getting slightly confused as to what the question is actually asking of me, do I need to just say to what degree has the proliferation stabilised the IR system and to what degree it has destabilised the IR system, so do I have to focus on both of these key words?
OR, do I have to chose either stabalising or destabalising, focusing on just one of these key words?

I think I have confused myself quite a bit by stressing over the question far too much! Please advise me on the structure I should follow to answer such a question, would be much appreciated.