On Sunday, Nov. 20, 1983, I left my college dorm to visit my parents’ home in the suburbs of Oxford, Ohio. That evening, along with some 100 million other Americans, we witnessed two hours of stunning television that would mobilize the nation, as well as some of its leaders, to take meaningful steps to reduce the nuclear danger.
The United States often has promised nuclear cooperation to allies for far fewer returns than it discussed with Saudi Arabia but never with such high proliferation risks.
Hruby discusses what the United States is doing to ensure that its nuclear weapons are safe and reliable and how transparency can help prevent nuclear-weapon states from returning to testing.
The first such meeting in nearly five years produced no obvious result but it did begin a dialogue.
The Defense Department unexpectedly announced plans to develop a new variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb.
The Energy Department will begin work on a civilian research project that relies on weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium, which the United States and other countries have long sought to phase out for energy uses.
Russia said it will respond to the formal written U.S. arms control proposal, which was announced in June but was not transmitted until September.
The United States and its NATO allies announced their plans following Russia’s decision earlier this year to withdraw from the pact.
The Defense Department announced initiatives to appropriate private sector advances in artificial intelligence while still using AI responsibly.
The President acted to ensure the “safe, secure, and trustworthy” application of artificial intelligence in response to growing public anxiety over AI’s potential dangers.
Russia’s move to withdraw its ratification from the 1996 treaty is a reminder that the de facto global test moratorium cannot be taken for granted.
The experience of the Cold War teaches us that an unconstrained arms race has no winners, only losers. Leaders in Beijing, Moscow, and Washington need to engage in nuclear risk reduction talks, negotiate sensible and verifiable reductions of their arsenals, and refrain from building new destabilizing types of weapons rather than proceed down the dangerous path of unconstrained nuclear competition.
Dealing with this new threat to prosperity and stability will require a recognition that weapons of war are not the best defense against the most sustained threats of the 21st century and beyond.
For the bipartisan commission charged with recommending how the United States should deal simultaneously with two nuclear-capable adversaries, the “answer to an arms race is an arms race.”
The United States retains exclusive military rights in the region while the island nation receives economic assistance.