The Obama years have strengthened US alliances, but the next administration will have to work to strengthen deterrence too. 

Japanese security policy is at a crossroads, shifting from a traditional pacifist security policy to a more assertive security policy. As part of this shift, Tokyo is steadily moving toward the deployment of a more robust missile defense system, which the Japanese government doesn't think contradicts the country's "exclusively defensive defense" policy anyway. And while the debate about U.S. missile defense installations in Eastern Europe remains contentious, in East Asia, political debate about missile defense installations in Japan seems to be fading away.

Media pomp and video symbolism cannot substitute for arms control substance. The high-level goals listed in the joint Singapore statement by President Trump and Chairman Kim are extremely vague, but concrete steps are required, if the nuclear risk that North Korea poses to the United States and the rest of the world is to be reduced. The vagueness of the joint statement creates a distinct possibility that it will quickly evaporate, with regrettable—and possibly catastrophic—results for the region and the world.

The Senate has basically ignored arms control for years. It doesn't have to be that way.

China is not only staking out turf in this easily overlooked region. It is even creating the turf, from scratch.

The announcement sent ripples throughout the international health community: On April 23, 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that seven children suffering from paralysis in the poor former Soviet country of Tajikistan were victims of poliomyelitis. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus had probably arrived with a traveler from India. It was the first importation of polio into Europe since 2002, when the region was certified as polio-free.

Officials in South Korea and Japan increasingly believe nuclear weapons would help them avoid being the next Ukraine. But they don't need them, an expert on Northeast Asia explains.

Here, guest editors Zia Mian and M.V. Ramana select a few of the many articles on nuclear South Asia that have been published by the Bulletin.

A decade has passed since negotiations first began on the “US-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement,” an accord that, when it was finally signed, gave India a waiver from the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. In a nutshell, the act ended a 34-year ban on nuclear trade with India. Popularly known as the “US-India Nuclear … Continued

In less than seven years, Chinese physicists went from launching a new hydrogen bomb research program to desperately searching foreign newspapers for any details about the H-bomb to successfully detonating a full-yield 3.3 megaton hydrogen bomb. In this feature article, a Chinese scholar tells the untold story of China’s hydrogen bomb development.

No country owns the North Pole or the expanse of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The Arctic region has a population of about 4 million, including more than 30 distinct groups of indigenous people using dozens of languages; they have lived there for more than 10,000 years. The area also has a unique and diverse ecosystem that includes fish, marine mammals, birds, land animals, and a thriving web of bacteria, viruses, algae, worms, and crustaceans that live in sea ice.

This is a good time to take another look at some Bulletin stories that delve into the psychology behind what has been happening lately in North Korea. And discredit some common tropes.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz has urged what seems obviously to be the wisest course on the INF agreement: “We should fix it, not kill it.” Unfortunately, it appears that the INF is in the hands of treaty killers.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: It is 5 Minutes to Midnight CHICAGO – October 4, 2013 – Two members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ distinguished Science and Security Board have received the 2014 Leo Szilard Award.  Dr. M.V Ramana, physicist and lecturer at Princeton University’s  Program on Science and Global Security; and … Continued