On February 2, the Pentagon rolled out the unclassified version of the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. The 2018 document contains significant changes over the last NPR, which was completed in 2010. The Bulletin will be publishing analyses of the NPR document itself and how it might be implemented.

Because it is the keeper of the Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is occasionally (if quite wrongly) accused of fear-mongering. The magazine, its editors, and its authors could more accurately be charged with hope-mongering. 

In this issue, four top experts assess the Trump administration’s performance in regard to the major, continuing global threats at the heart of the Bulletin’s mission: nuclear weapons, climate change, man-made biological agents, and cyber attacks on democracy.

  Regardless of who occupies the White House, the most difficult challenges that the United States and other governments around the world face are dealt with over time spans counted in years, and often decades. Yet, each year of a US presidency contributes to crucial global action that cannot be squandered or reversed if nations … Continued

The current sense of “hybrid war,” was introduced in 2005, when James N. Mattis, now the US defense secretary, and National Defense University researcher Frank Hoffman called it “a combination of novel approaches—a merger of different modes and means of war.” Since then, the use of hybrid warfare techniques has expanded dramatically, from Iran’s blend … Continued

As the security situation ratcheted up on the Korean Peninsula over the last week, the  Bulletin’s staff, leadership, and columnists quickly jumped into action, providing a trusted source of information to help track and make sense of unfolding events. Here is a summary of what we’ve been up to, in case you missed it: Los … Continued

It’s been 72 years since the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and, a few days later, on Nagasaki, Japan. Since that week in August when the world was changed forever, the global nuclear arsenal has risen and dropped. Countries have joined and left the nuclear weapons club, with North Korea becoming the most recent member. … Continued

Check out our latest interactive, “Know the Time,” an animation of technological advancement and global risk, documented by the Doomsday Clock. It was created by Fabian Stricker, Mapper and Digital Business Integration Analyst, who became concerned about global risk due to the alarming rhetoric used during the 2016 US presidential election. Follow Fabian on Twitter … Continued

To the founders of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1945, the idea of a global ban on nuclear weapons would have been cause for celebration. So what should we make of the treaty that was adopted at the United Nations on Friday? Here’s what you need to know: On the prohibition of nuclear … Continued

Over the decades since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the worldwide taboo against the use of nuclear weapons drove agreements such as SALT, START and the INF Treaty. Over the last year, however, the taboo seems to be weakening: North Korea continues to test nuclear weapons, Russia is apparently re-thinking its commitment to the INF … Continued

Until recently, research into science and technology was funded primarily by governments. Today, technological breakthroughs are being driven primarily by private firms funded with venture capital. This change in the R&D landscape is leaving governments and international organizations scrambling to craft oversight tools and policies that will help manage the disruptive impacts—and possible threats—resulting from … Continued

Nuclear power advocates maintain that nuclear power is essential to a low-carbon future because it emits no carbon dioxide and provides large amounts of baseload electrical generation. However, critics point to nuclear power’s costs and accident and proliferation risks as continuing drawbacks to large-scale nuclear reactor construction. With this important policy discussion in mind, the … Continued

Tens of thousands of people came to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ website over the last week, looking for answers on what a new Trump administration means for the health and safety of our planet. As Bulletin editor John Mecklin writes, Donald Trump’s positions on serious questions have often ricocheted from side to side: … Continued

An extraordinary global energy transformation will be required for the world to successfully slow and then halt climate change, and that transformation will change the power dynamics among nations. The security arrangements necessary to keep the peace among the powers that vie for an energy advantage in the coming renewables era demand attention now. Here's … Continued

On Monday, October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin withdrew his country from the US-Russia Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). The PDMA, first signed in 2000 and renewed in 2009, affirmed the intention of each country to dispose of stockpiles of plutonium that could be used to build nuclear warheads. President Putin’s decision to pull … Continued

Today, 71 years later, the world remembers one of the most lethal bomb attacks in world history. In the immediate aftermath of the atomic blast at Nagasaki, anywhere from 45,000 to 75,000 lives were lost. In many ways, Nagasaki is a more realistic – and thus alarming – case study of what a modern nuclear strike might look like. Hiroshima was considered an ideal military target: a medium-size population center that had been untouched by conventional weapons with a sizable troop concentration. Nagasaki, on the other hand, had no major troop concentration. It did have the Mitsubishi industrial complex, but the main reason it was chosen as the target that day was because the primary target – Kyushu – had poor visibility. Nagasaki’s hilly geography, unsuited for a nuclear strike but suitable for surviving one, accounted for the minor difference in the loss of life between the two blasts.

On Friday, May 27, President Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, site of the first atomic bomb detonation in history. Amid the debate over the visit—will he or won’t he go; will he or won’t he meet with the Hibakusha; will he or won’t he apologize—it is clear … Continued

A daily roundup of quality nuclear policy news. North Korea South Korea’s Moon says cannot recognize North Korea as nuclear state Exclusive: US pursues direct diplomacy with North Korea despite Trump rejection North Korea’s plenty scary without an overhyped EMP threat Report: North Korea runs hospital to treat nuclear radiation patients Dems tout bill aimed at … Continued

Russia may try to buy massive amounts of Chinese weapons by transferring weapons-grade plutonium—a deal that would have severe, long-term strategic consequences.