The Nuclear Threat Has Not Disappeared

For much of the population the existential threat to humanity and civilization is the climate change emergency. Many have forgotten about the threat of nuclear annihilation.

The risk of nuclear weapons being used is at its highest since World War Two, a senior U.N. security expert said, calling it an “urgent” issue that the world should take more seriously.

Renata Dwan, director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said all states with nuclear weapons have nuclear modernization programs underway and the arms control landscape is changing.

Traditional arms control arrangements are also being eroded by the emergence of new types of war, with increasing prevalence of armed groups and private sector forces and new technologies that blurred the line between offence and defense, she told reporters.

122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. 

“I think that it’s genuinely a call to recognize – and this has been somewhat missing in the media coverage of the issues – that the risks of nuclear war are particularly high now, and the risks of the use of nuclear weapons, for some of the factors I pointed out, are higher now than at any time since World War Two.” 

Dwan said the world should not ignore the danger of nuclear weapons.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-nuclear/risk-of-nuclear-war-now-highest-since-ww2-u-n-arms-research-chief-says-idUSKCN1SR24H