Nuclear-Armed Countries Are Flexing Their Muscles: What Are the Actual Risks?

The United States carried out airstrikes last month against three sites in Iran tied to its nuclear program. The attacks were the culmination of years of belligerence that began when Trump violated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and embarked on a strategy of confrontation with Iran, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While the level of damage done to the sites remains unclear, the Iranian government has responded to the attacks by ceasing cooperation with international monitoring agencies. Iran is also hinting it retains the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon if it chooses.

The standoff with Iran is just one aspect of a larger story of the reemergence of nuclear weapons and possible nuclear warfare as a major risk in the 21st century.

The U.S. and Russia are currently in the process of building up to a new nuclear arms race, while, at present, China has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal of any country . Recently, the India and Pakistan conflict made many nervous that one of the countries would use nuclear weapons.

After years of relative stability, the size of the nuclear club also looks very likely to grow with new nations potentially carrying out nuclear tests in the years ahead. These changes mean that the risk of a nuclear war is growing after the end of the Cold War rather than decreasing.

Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Ankit Panda. Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the author of the new book “The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon.”

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