The Doomsday Clock is an internationally recognized design that conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making. First and foremost among these are nuclear weapons, but the dangers include climate-changing technologies, emerging... Read More
The Lavon Affair, a failed Israeli covert operation directed against Egypt in 1954, triggered a chain of events that have had profound consequences for power relationships in the Middle East; the affair’s effects still reverberate today.
Recent research has revealed new facts about the British nuclear arsenal over a 25-year period starting in 1953. This accounting and the authors’ own research support an estimate that the British produced about 1,250 nuclear warheads between 1953 and 2013.
An emerging school of thought contends that the world is becoming increasingly safe. Proponents of the peaceable-world argument point to statistical evidence that war and violence have diminished since prehistoric times and to the non-use of nuclear weapons since 1945.
Jamal Khaer IbrahimRajeswari Pillai RajagopalanIbrahim Said Ibrahim
For decades, arms control experts have envisioned a world in which ordinary people could verify treaty compliance. With the emergence of smartphones and social networks, this world may be ready to materialize. But are developing nations ready for citizen verification?
My colleague Sadia Tasleem, discussing whether Pakistan might be considered a potential target of US deterrence policy, noted in her second essay that her nation has not "help[ed] terrorists gain access to weapons of mass destruction." This is true—so far.
Profeta is the founding director of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and an associate professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
