nuclear weapons

Stronger Global Governance is the Only Way to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

by Lawrence Wittner

The war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between the PRC and Taiwan are just two examples of the resurgent danger of nuclear war. A revived movement for true international governance is needed to ensure that the unthinkable becomes impossible. 

The Documents Daniel Ellsberg Didn't Leak

While famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the researcher and activist has revealed that he had another stash of secret papers—about American nuclear war planning—that he felt a duty to publicize. He never did release them, but is committed in his last days to work against nuclear war. 

The Doomsday Clock and Me

by Frida Berrigan

The presence of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and its famous Doomsday Clock, on TikTok, presents an unsettling but hopeful reality that younger people are being made aware of the risk of nuclear war. 

Strangelove on the Square: Secret USAF Films Showed Airmen What to Expect if Nuclear War Broke Out

Air Force training films, with their bloodless procedural guidance for launching armageddon, provide a surreal insight into the Cold War that put Kubrick's absurdism to shame (yes, HNN will feature Dr. Strangelove-related content at any opportunity). 

We Miss Dr. Strangelove now that We've Learned to Stop Worrying and Forget the Bomb

by Andrew Bacevich

Kubrick's classic film forced viewers to confront the possibility that the controls of the world's nuclear weapons were held by fools, fanatics, and outright lunatics. Today, it's too easy to ignore it altogether. 

Nuclear Fears Clouding Thinking on Ukraine

by Timothy Snyder

"Once we turn our attention to a hypothetical exchange of missiles, we get to imagine that we are the victims.  Suddenly the actual war no longer seems to matter, since our lives (we imagine) are at risk.  And the Ukrainians seem to be at fault."

Canada's Hottest Tourist Attraction Could be the Government's Doomsday Bunker

Canada's Diefenbunker was decommissioned in 1994, and today is one of the few places where tourists can see the preparations made to preserve government in the event of the unthinkable. 

Martin Sherwin's "Gambling with Armageddon" Strips away the Myths of Nuclear Deterrence

by Lawrence Wittner

As Sherwin points out, “the real lesson of the Cuban missile crisis . . . is that nuclear armaments create the perils they are deployed to prevent, but are of little use in resolving them.”

Energy Secretary: Revoking Oppenheimer Security Clearance Was Wrong

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the revocation of the physicist's clearance after his opposition to the US hydrogen bomb project was the result of a biased process, one historian Kai Bird calls a "kangaroo court." 

Peace is Not Our Profession

by William J. Astore

The unveiling of the newest stealth bomber underscores the fundamental insanity and cruel wastefulness of the policy of peace through nuclear deterrence, argues a historian and retired USAF lieutenant colonel. 

Resisting the Plans for America's "Nuclear Sponge"

by Taylor Rose

An unlikely coalition of conservative "sagebrush rebels" and Native tribal activists opposed a plan to locate the US ICBM arsenal in Utah and Nevada, creating a single nuclear sacrifice zone in the event of an attack. 

What's New About Putin's Nuclear Threats? Just that the US is on the Receiving End

by David P. Barash

From the American perspective, the seeming danger of Putin's nuclear saber-rattling is partly due to the novelty of being on the receiving end. 

Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Won't Set Off a Nuclear Scramble

by Eric Brewer, Nicholas L. Miller, and Tristan Volpe

It seems that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may eventually help the cause of nuclear nonproliferation, if the United States approaches its allies with the right mix of defense assurances and aid to civilian nuclear power that may serve as a "hedge" to reassure other governments that they could develop weapons, even if they don't. 

Putin's Nuclear Threats are Warping the West's Ukraine Strategy

by Anne Applebaum

Nuclear bluster is a purposeful strategy to leverage fear to make NATO nations less willing to defend Ukraine and other nations neighboring Russia. How can they have a better response? 

Newly Translated Documents Give Fuller Picture of Nuclear Danger During Cuban Missile Crisis

The National Security Archive has released an English translation of the account of a Soviet submarine officer of events in October 1962 tells the story of how his vessel's commander nearly launched nuclear weapons against US Navy ships enforcing the quarantine of Cuba.  

Perspective: Using a Nuclear Weapon Would be Disastrous for Russia

by Steve Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb

Russia has retained much of the Soviet-era's top-down command structure, which removes decisionmakers from both the real-world context and consequences of big decisions. This presents a danger that those leaders will misundersand the catastrophic result of a nuclear bomb. 

Nuclear Fears 60 Years After the Cuban Crisis

From the actions of Soviet naval officers to the real-time recommendations of Robert F. Kennedy, the official story of the 1962 crisis is due for some updates according to historians who've published recent work on the subject. 

Radioactive Pollution from WWII-Era Atomic Bomb Projects Contaminates St. Louis Elementary School

Waste from weapons production was dumped into streams near an airport and still contaminates a suburban elementary school. 

A Decision to Declare an Already-Public History Secret is Bad for the Public

The State Department's official history of US-Soviet relations includes a military intelligence officer's recollection of a 1983 exercise that nearly triggered nuclear war. Why has the government pulled that official history and restricted the original memo? 

Bye Bye, World: Will Humanity Continue to Tolerate the Risk of Nuclear War?

by Lawrence Wittner

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, broad-based disarmament movements have demanded a world without the threat of nuclear annihilation. Will the governments of powerful nations lead the way to realizing that goal?