A man reads an Iranian newspaper with a headline in Farsi that says, ‘The night of the end of the JCPOA,’ or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
A nuclear nonproliferation expert explains why Iran was always unlikely to return to the 2015 international agreement that limited its nuclear weapon development.
Concerns about aggression from North Korea and China might drive some Asian countries to develop their own nuclear arsenals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is introduced to the US Congress by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on March 16, 2022 in Washington, DC.
J. Scott Applewhite-Pool/Getty Images
The reasons for the prominence of the Ukraine war in the West are many – and include the Ukrainian government’s strategic efforts to tailor presentations of the conflict for Western sensibilities.
A Russian military intercontinental ballistic missile launcher rolls by during the 2019 Victory Day military parade celebrating the end of the Second World War in Red Square in Moscow in May 2019.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The sort of scenarios that might lead to the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war would require a significant deterioration in Russian fortunes — and greater western involvement in the conflict.
Despite decades of progress on nonproliferation, Russia’s new threats of nuclear strikes bring to mind that convincing countries to reduce their nuclear weapons has long been very difficult.
A U.S. Air Force jet performs a test drop of a B61-12 bomb in December 2021. That bomb can contain a nuclear warhead for use in wartime.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Both the Russian and US arsenals boast thousands of nuclear weapons, located in various places around their own countries and, for the US, in Europe as well.
At the end of ‘Don’t Look Up,’ the protagonists gather for a final meal.
Netflix
The end is often envisioned the same way: abruptly, hopelessly and completely. How does this constrain the range of possible solutions?
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, left, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 18, 2022.
Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Belarus’ alliance with Russia is a strategic factor in the Ukraine war. The country’s long-term dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has indicated he will do as Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Experts around the world have been warning nuclear weapons are increasingly being seen as ‘usable’ by the political and military leaders who wield them.
Geoengineering aims to intervene in Earth’s climate to fight global warming.
NASAJohnson/Flickr
Kim Jong Un has followed his father and grandfather in ruling by fear. The coronavirus pandemic has made North Korea ever more isolated, while expanded military capabilities make it a growing threat.
A major war between the United States and Russia could make global fish catches fall by as much as 30 per cent.
(Pexels)
As Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff in the nuclear era to call for total disarmament, all of us – whether secular or religious – can engage through creative and proactive moral responsibility.
Arnagretta Hunter, Australian National University e John Hewson, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Other existential risks include the decline of natural resources (particularly water), human population growth beyond the Earth’s carrying capacity, and nuclear weapons.