With planning for the 2016 event under way, a new tack needs to come to the fore.

The recognition of the need for nuclear disarmament and the question of how to achieve it are as old as the nuclear age. In June 1945, before the first nuclear weapon had been built, in what became known as the Franck Report, a group of scientists working on the U.S. atomic bomb program warned that:

A pioneer of nuclear nonproliferation passes on, but the work of nonproliferation must endure.

At the June 18 ceremony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the last nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, the site of hundreds of Soviet-era nuclear tests, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed that August 29--the day of the very first nuclear explosion at the site--should be declared by the United Nations as the "World Day of Renouncing Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Though many might imagine faith and science as incompatible, religion and atomic science, at least, are natural bedfellows. Both lead their truest devotees into a troubled insomnia, staring wide-eyed at dark ceilings as undeniably existential matters banish any thought of sleep. The first nuclear test was itself an oddly syncretistic undertaking--bearing the moniker of the Christian Godhead, Trinity; recounted by J.

Former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry to chair the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors.

From Harvard University's Belfer Center, this study of artificial intelligence and its likely security implications is an outstanding one-stop primer on the subject.

"There will never be a 100 percent guarantee of security for our people, the economy, and our society. We must resist the urge to seek total security--it is not achievable and drains our attention from those things that can be accomplished." --Gilmore Commission, December 2003

'Oppenheimer' shows scientists cannot turn back to a world in which research is pure and unencumbered with its consequences. They need to take part in the public arena, a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine argues.

One of the many obstacles to reaching an arms-control agreement with North Korea revolves around the risk that undeclared, clandestine nuclear facilities might exist in that country, which—if they remain undetected—would allow the Kim Jong-un regime to maintain and continue its military nuclear ambitions. It is therefore very important that any agreed-upon denuclearization of the … Continued

Long-awaited talks between Iran and six major powers (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States) start on Thursday, October 1, in Geneva. Bolstered by last week's revelation of a enrichment facility hidden under a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom, Western officials reportedly will press Iran to commit to the Additional Protocol, an agreement that allows wide-ranging access for international inspectors.

During an April 2007 speech at a Princeton University colloquium titled, "From Passion to Politics: What Moves People to Take Action," New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer admitted that the world changes more by technology than by politics. He added that emotions can obscure facts and that political discourse requires an agreed-upon set of facts before policy can be rationally discussed. Unfortunately, politicizing scientific facts has never been more prevalent.

How can gift-basket diplomacy be preserved beyond the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit?

Harvard professor Graham Allison once helped secure nuclear missiles in the former Soviet Union, now he's grading states on how well they're vaccinating people against COVID-19. The famed analyst of great power competition is taking on a new (great) challenge.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty following years of Russian noncompliance is the most recent upset in a series of escalating tensions between the two superpowers. The political status of Ukraine and Crimea, Russian disinformation campaigns in the 2016 election cycle, and continued uncertainty surrounding the extension of New START have … Continued

“Father of the internet” Vinton Cerf and “father of public key cryptography” Martin Hellman agree that the US needs to understand the risk of nuclear war. However, they disagree about the best means for understanding that risk. In side-by-side opinion pieces, Cerf and Hellman present their opposing views.

Growing up in the post-Cold War era has some advantages: Millennials aren’t wedded to old theories about nuclear security, and are more engaged with their peers around the world.

"What will make a focus on nuclear security a permanent feature of what we do?" asked Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit held in Seoul in late March. Experts agree that the 2014 summit must go further in securing nuclear materials from disasters and, most important, terrorist threats -- but agreement on precisely how to do this is harder to come by. In this regard, Australia has much to offer.