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North Korea might not denuclearize, but the US Senate should

The United States would have more credibility as a critic of North Korea’s nuclear program if it joined denuclearization agreements in Africa, Central Asia, and the South Pacific.

Lessons for confronting deterrence and militarism from Hawaii, America’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’

Amid competition with China, the already-robust US military presence in the Pacific is being expanded, with new bases planned for the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. Activists and Indigenous people living on America’s unsinkable Pacific aircraft carriers increasingly assert the right to live not on a battleship but as part of nature.

Getting evacuations right—in time for the next one

Amid a changing climate, more mass evacuations will be necessary. Let’s try to learn from past mistakes.

Special report: Tilting toward windmills

A homespun Rhode Island destination gets an offshore wind farm—and, mostly, likes it. Will massive offshore wind parks follow, powering America’s Northeast?

As the Colorado River runs dry: A five-part climate change story

This article is the first in a 5-part series on the Colorado River originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The beginnings of the mighty Colorado River on the west slope of Rocky Mountain National Park are humble. A large marsh creates a small trickle of a stream … Continued
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Post-Iran deal, the US needs a plan to keep nuclear weapons from spreading

On May 8, President Donald Trump announced that he was pulling the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Just hours later, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN that his country would “do whatever it takes to protect our people. We have made … Continued

Best of the Bulletin, 2021: Beyond words

The Bulletin spent much of 2021 looking at existential threats—literally.

The trouble with Trump’s North Korea policy

Now is not the time to upset US allies
nuclear plant France

Why countries still must prioritize action to curb nuclear terrorism

When a Superman-shaped drone crashed into a French nuclear plant on July 3 officials were lucky it was just Greenpeace demonstrating vulnerabilities at the facility, and not a terrorist group intent on attacking the site.

International roundtable series launches on nuclear disarmament and economic development

Today on its website, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists launches a new monthly Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Development Roundtable series in which experts from emerging and developing countries debate crucial, timely topics in nuclear energy, nuclear proliferation, and economic development.

What a Cold War crisis over Taiwan could tell us about China-Russia relations today

Today's Ukraine crisis has uncanny parallels to an often-overlooked Cold War conflict between China, the Soviet Union, and the West known as “The Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1958”—which some analysts call the first serious nuclear crisis.

Bomb cyclones and breadbaskets: How climate, food, and political unrest intersect

Drought on Russia’s steppes can mean riots in Cairo’s streets: the nexus between climate change, food security, and political unrest and war.

What nonproliferation diplomacy can and can’t achieve

Multilateral diplomacy is hardly destined to become a spectator sport. For most people--for almost all people, really--"talk shops" like the United Nations fail to get the blood racing. If successful, they tend to produce results gradually, fitfully, and by a series of compromises.

A monumental lobbying coup

A mining company with a uranium mill bordering the Bears Ears National Monument lobbied to reduce the monument’s size. The White House listened.

Now is the time for another Green Revolution

Changes in agricultural methods and more scientific research will help stave off global food insecurity.

PRESS RELEASE: Doomsday Clock set at 90 seconds to midnight

The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight, due largely but not exclusively to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The new Clock time was also influenced by continuing threats posed by the climate crisis and the breakdown of global norms and institutions needed to mitigate risks associated with advancing technologies and biological threats such as COVID-19.
A Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile at a 2015 military parade in Beijing. China may be a source for other governments wishing to buy missiles. (Photo credit: Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons.)

The coming Middle East missile arms race

As American influence in the region wanes, Israel and some Gulf states are embracing both missiles and nuclear power.

Getting back to basics on missile defense

The Obama administration has inherited a Gordian knot in strategic security affairs, but no sword. Instead of seizing opportunities to make far-reaching changes to post-Cold War nuclear posture, the previous two administrations pursued NATO expansion and national missile defense deployment. These choices set the scene for the Pentagon's missile defense review, which is expected to conclude shortly.

American science and the rise of Donald Trump

It’s hard not to see how Donald Trump’s campaign has resonated “in regions of the country that have not only failed to benefit economically from innovation, but have been harmed by it.”
US ICBM Test

Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?

The reasons for the United States new intercontinental ballistic missile—the ground-based strategic deterrent, or GBSD—are historical, political, and to a significant extent economic. Many people in the states where the new missile will be built and based see it as an economic lifeline. Their elected officials take campaign donations from defense companies, to be sure, but are also trying to deliver jobs in a political environment that has been hostile to government spending on anything but defense.