Keywords
nuclear arms
warheads
nuclear modernisations
treaties
nuclear threats
doomsday clock
How to Cite
Abstract
A worldwide nuclear arms race is underway. Deployed nuclear weapons are increasing again, and China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom are all enlarging their arsenals. An estimated 2,100 nuclear warheads in France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and, for the first time, also in China, are on high alert, ready for launch within minutes. With disarmament in reverse, extensive nuclear modernisations underway, multiple arms control treaties abrogated without replacement, no disarmament negotiations in evidence, nuclear-armed Russia and Israel engaged in active wars involving repeated nuclear threats, Russia and the United States deploying nuclear weapons to additional states, and widespread use of cyberwarfare, the risk of nuclear war is widely assessed to be greater than ever. This year, the Doomsday Clock was moved the closest to midnight since the clock's founding in 1947.
References
Abbasi, K., Ali, P., Barbour, V., et al. (2023). Reducing the risks of nuclear war. BMJ, 382, p1682.
Helfand, I., Haines, A., Ruff, T., Kristensen, H., Lewis, P., & Mian, Z. (2016). The growing threat of nuclear war and the role of the health community. World Medical Journal, 62(3), 86–94.
Kristensen, H., Korda, M., Johns, E., Knight, M., & Kohn, K. (2025). Status of world nuclear forces. Federation of American Scientists. https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/
NobelPrize.org. (2024). The Nobel Peace Prize 2024. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/summary/
NobelPrize.org. (2025). Award ceremony speech. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/ceremony-speech/
Norwegian People's Aid. (2025). Nuclear weapons ban monitor 2024. https://banmonitor.org/
Reaching Critical Will. (2025). General Assembly First Committee vote record. https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com24/votes-ga/408DRXVII.pdf
Robock, A., Xia, L., Harrison, C. S., Coupe, J., Toon, O. B., & Bardeen, C. (2023). Opinion: How fear of nuclear winter has helped save the world, so far. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23(12), 6691–6701. https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/6691/2023
Science and Security Board. (2025). Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight. 2025 Doomsday Clock statement. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2025-statement/
Tannenwald, N. (1999). The nuclear taboo: The United States and the normative basis of nuclear non-use. International Organization, 53(3), 433–468. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2601286
Tomonaga, M. (2019). The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A summary of the human consequences, 1945–2018, and lessons for Homo sapiens to end the nuclear weapon age. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2(2), 491–517.
United Nations. (2017). Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. https://www.icanw.org/tpnw_full_text
United Nations General Assembly. (2024). Nuclear war and scientific research (A/C.1/79/L.39). https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com24/resolutions/L39-.pdf
World Health Organization. (1987). Effects of nuclear war on health and health services (2nd ed.). https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/39199
World Health Organization. (1993). Health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons (WHA46/30). https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/175987/WHA46_30_eng.pdf
World Health Organization. (2025a). Effects of nuclear weapons and war on health and health services (EB156/CONF./10). https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB156/B156_CONF10-en.pdf
World Health Organization. (2025b). Effects of nuclear war on health and health services. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/39199
Xia, L., Robock, A., Scherrer, K., et al. (2022). Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery, and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection. Nature Food, 3, 586–596.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.