In my experience at the U.S. State Department, those working on nuclear arms control and those working on resolving violent conflicts could not be farther apart – literally. The Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability and my office in the Bureau of Conflict...
On Aug. 9, 2025, I attended a Memorial Mass at Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed by the atomic bomb of 1945 dropped only 500 meters away. At 11:02 a.m. – the same time the bomb nearly leveled the cathedral 80 years prior – both bells in the rebuilt...
President Trump ordered the U.S. to “test” nuclear weapons. While the actual impact of his order is still unclear, it is an escalation of risk. We are at the highest risk of nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis, when President Kennedy estimated we faced a 1 in 3...
Over the past 50 years, existing nonproliferation treaties and initiatives have proved remarkably effective in preventing the emergence of additional nuclear-armed states. But nonproliferation efforts are at an inflection point: the risk of additional states...
Shielding the population of a nation from the devastation of an adversary nuclear attack is unquestionably a laudable goal for a national leader. Former President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and now President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome Program...
Social movements – appealing to public concerns and ethics – have an essential role to play in halting the rebuilding and expansion of nuclear weapons systems today. They can fundamentally shape the public and political conversation around these issues. By reflecting...