By John Erath  *SPOILERS BELOW* If the way we think about nuclear weapons has changed over time, should the way we approach arms control do so as well?  This thought occurred to me as I drove home recently after seeing Dune Part 2, Denis Villeneuve’s conclusion of his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. Nuclear weapons […] The post Thinking Evolves: On Dune Part Two and Nuclear Weapons  appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By Anne Alessandra Cuadros Gutiérrez* Last August marked the 78th anniversary of the devastating U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 214,000 people. These events have left an indelible mark on history, but unfortunately still can be trivialized in pop culture. By following a few simple guidelines, filmmakers, studio […] The post “Barbenheimer:” Nuclear Weapons and Their Diffusion through Pop Culture appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By John Erath February 24 will mark the two years of the current round of Russian aggression against Ukraine. It also bears remembering that February 21 is the anniversary of the start of the battle of Verdun in 1916. Why should this be significant? There are a number of interesting parallels between the two conflicts […] The post The Ukraine War After Two Years — A Lesson From the Past appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By Lauren Cho* Over the past decades, U.S. efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea have failed to yield lasting results. Looking forward, it is critical to put greater emphasis on the socio-economic connections that are intertwined with the state’s nuclear weapons program in our diplomatic efforts. By gaining insights into the social implications […] The post A Sociological Approach to Proliferation-related Intelligence on North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By John Erath  That 2024 is an election year in the United States will come as no more of a surprise than the usual partisan bickering and the inevitable portrayals of the other side as dangerous to national security. As someone who served presidents of both parties for three decades, I want to offer an […] The post 5 Potential Points for Bipartisanship on Nuclear Issues in 2024  appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By John Erath  On October 11, I published some reactions to the Russian announcement revoking signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). That post focused on Russia and why its leadership chose to take this step and made the case for renewed U.S. administration efforts to ratify CTBT. In this post, I want to look […] The post No Good Reason for Nuclear Testing, Part 2 appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By Emma Sandifer The question of whether a nuclear deterrent might be necessary for South Korea has experienced a resurgence over the past few years, becoming a “mainstream feature of South Korea’s national security discourse”. With recent escalation in the pace of North Korea’s nuclear provocation, China’s aggressive buildup of its nuclear arsenal, and waning […] The post Would A Nuclear Weapon Make South Korea Safer? appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By Connor Murray The Pentagon recently announced plans to develop a new variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, the B61-13. This proposed bomb would, as the name suggests, be the 13th variant of the B61 and “provide the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.” The weapon would be delivered […] The post The Latest Nuclear Boondoggle? appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By John Erath Earlier this year, for the first time since the Cold War, it was announced that the total number of nuclear weapons in the world rose in 2022. Largely, the reason for the increase was China’s rapid construction of additional weapons. Although the United States and Russia are undergoing modernizations of their nuclear […] The post The China Dilemma  appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more

By Shawn Rostker The war in Ukraine has been marked by a Russian reliance on air strikes in the face of its failure to capture decisive victory on the ground. The use of drones and missiles against military and civilian targets has been one of the main pillars of a Russian strategy to drain Ukraine’s […] The post The Right and Wrong Lessons to Learn from Missile Defense in Ukraine appeared first on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation ..read more