Summary
There is good news and bad news about the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
The bad news is that things are currently headed in the wrong direction. The good news is that a long record of past success in arms control proves that progress is possible, when people put their minds to it.
The Bad News…
- All 9 countries that possess nuclear weapons are expanding their capabilities. Several are expanding the size of their arsenals. In the past year, two governments, Russia and North Korea, issued public nuclear threats.
- There is an increasing body of research suggesting that even a “small” nuclear war could trigger a global climatic event of unprecedented consequence.
The Good News…
- Beginning in the 1960s, governments negotiated agreements that reduced the number of nuclear tests, the number of nuclear weapons, and the spread of nuclear weapons. These agreements were a spectacular reversal of dangerous trends.
- Russia and the US together dismantled or removed more than 60,000 nuclear warheads.
The Nuclear Weapons Threat in 5 Graphs
Download Infographic as PDF: What’s the state of nuclear weapons today?