The authoritative guide to ensuring science and technology make life on Earth better, not worse.

Cold War

night-time test launch of Minuteman ICBM with silhouettes of crowd

Nuclear Notebook: The long view—Strategic arms control after the New START Treaty

By Jessica Rogers, Matt Korda, Hans M. Kristensen | Nuclear Notebook, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

A coup attempt in Moscow in 1991.

Are the US and China fighting a “tech war” over semiconductors and other advanced technology?

By Matt Field | Biosecurity

Soviet nuclear launch site in Cuba

“Midnight is upon us”—the Cuban Missile Crisis as seen at the time, in one person’s words

By Harrison Brown | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

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

By (Clark) Aoqi Wu | Analysis, Nuclear Risk, Special Topics

US and Aussie submarines

Introduction: Can the United States and China co-exist in the 21st century? Will they?

By John Mecklin | Opinion, Special Topics

plane flying over ship Cuban Missile Crisis

China and the United States: It’s a Cold War, but don’t panic

By Robert Daly | Analysis, Nuclear Risk

ancient Greek warriors on vase

Interview with Graham Allison: Are the United States and China charging into Thucydides’s trap?

By John Mecklin | Interviews, Opinion, Special Topics

The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. Written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin. 208 pages. Candlewick Press. Ages 10 and up.

The Genius Under the Table: A poignant children’s book set in the Cold War

By Susan D’Agostino | Book Review, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons, Opinion, What We’re Reading

President Reagan says goodbye to Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev after the last meeting at Hofdi House Reykjavik Iceland in October 1986

The rise and demise of arms control

By Michael Krepon | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

The A1 Verse: Opposites attract

By Thomas Gaulkin | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons, Special Topics

Smolny College Commencement, 2019. Smolny College—the first liberal arts program in Russia—was founded as a dual-degree program between Bard College in the United States and St. Petersburg University in Russia. Last month, the Russian State Prosecutor’s Office labeled Bard College “undesirable,” which criminalized Bard’s decades-long partnership with St. Petersburg University. Photo credit: Bard College. Used with permission.

Why scientists should respond to Russia’s criminalizing of a US educational exchange

By Susan D’Agostino | Interviews, Nuclear Risk, Opinion

Artist’s conception of Galileo satellite in orbit in 2021. Image courtesy of European Space Agency

Avoiding an unintentional space war: Lessons from Cold War nuclear diplomacy

By Maxwell Simon, Sam Wilson | Nuclear Weapons, Special Topics