Nuclear Weapons
92 Articles

The Trump Administration’s Nuclear Test Delusions
Resuming testing provides no strategic benefit and would undermine a treaty that has curbed the spread of nuclear weapons for more than 50 years.

Nuclear Arms Control, or a New Arms Race? Trump Seems Bent on the Latter.
More ambitious talks with the Russians and Chinese are a laudable goal. But they can be pursued smartly and without unnecessarily high risk.

Extend New START — The World Can’t Afford a U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Race Too
The chances of successfully negotiating a new, complex deal including China were already slim before the coronavirus pandemic. Now, in the midst of what clearly will be an extended…

Pentagon Deployment of New, “More Usable” Nuclear Weapon Is a Grave Mistake
DoD now acknowledges it has deployed a new, sea-based nuclear warhead capability. But the administration’s stated rationale for the new weapon is deeply flawed, and the decision…

Trump’s Aim to Go Big on Nuclear Arms Control Should Begin by Extending New START
If President Trump actually seeks to avoid an arms race, maintain a cap on the Russian nuclear arsenal, and create the conditions for follow-on talks with Russia and new negotiations…

The Once and Future Threat of Nuclear Weapon Testing
Some Trump administration officials have signaled hostility to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and an interest in the United States resuming nuclear weapon testing, which could…

Cooking the WMD Books: Politicizing the 2019 State Department Compliance Report
"I know. I used to work in State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance and then in the Office of the Under Secretary responsible for this report.…

Nuclear Arms Control After Helsinki: If Trump and Putin Want a Deal on Arms Control, Here’s Where to Start
Amid the uncertainty surrounding the discussion between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in their two-hour summit meeting without staff in Helsinki,…

The National Security Threat of Trump’s Defense Budget
As a former military officer and national security appointee under President Barack Obama, I know firsthand the value of U.S. defense spending for securing the United States and…

Sanctions, Human Rights and the Upcoming North Korea Nuclear Summit
With less than a month to go before the June 12th summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, the Trump administration is grappling with whether…

The Devastating Legacy of British and American Nuclear Testing at Kiritimati (Christmas) and Malden Islands
Teeua Tetua was a child during the British nuclear weapons tests, known as Operation Grapple, on the Kiritimati (Christmas) and Malden Islands, then under British colonial control.…

How We Persuaded 122 Countries to Ban Nuclear Weapons
On Oct. 6, the Geneva office of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) received a call from the Norwegian Nobel Committee: We had won the 2017 Peace Prize…