End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw
Jun 09, 2025
Aide carrying the USA’s “nuclear football” containing the nuclear code that only the President can use to launch a nuclear weapon . . . Do we trust our current president to be the sole decision-maker whether or not to engage in nuclear war? ~llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion
So here we are again in another dither about Trump’s insane contradictory views on nuclear agreements, but also, even worse, is his switching between nuclear “Disarmament” as he refers to it, and turning the world loose with unlimited “Nuclear Proliferation” simply because, as NATO nations fear, he may not support other countries in the possibility of nuclear war, or even a non-nuclear war if you consider his back and forth attitude toward a possible truce between Ukraine and Russia.
We keep going down this frighteningly dangerous road of what appears to be an extremely mentally unstable American president who either can’t make up his mind about important global or even local issues or, more likely, he cannot remember his previous contradictions as opposed to his new ones. The thus far disastrous Iran nuclear talks, are a carefully followed example, indicating a short term memory as well as an extremely limited attention span.
Given these and other obvious mental issues, some of them age-related, can we trust this president to be the sole decision-maker whether or not to engage in nuclear war?
I think not! ~llaw
Why America may be triggering a new era of nuclear proliferation
Allies are less certain of the US’s ‘extended deterrence’ and some are pondering their own options. Ankit Panda explains the escalating dangers of a ‘third nuclear age’ – and how they might be avoided.
The World Today Published 9 June 2025 5 minute READ
Ankit Panda
Stanton Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Editor-at-Large, The Diplomat
In 1961, Charles de Gaulle, the French president, asked his American counterpart John F Kennedy if the United States ‘would be ready to trade New York for Paris’. His pointed question was about whether the US would be prepared to defend its European NATO allies, thereby risking a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union which had acquired intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US mainland in 30 minutes.
No response from Kennedy would have convinced the French leader that such a sacrifice would be made. The year before France had carried out its first nuclear weapon test to become the fourth nuclear-armed power, independent of the United States.
Six decades on similar doubts are resurfacing among leaders, strategists and electorates from Warsaw to Seoul, from Canberra to Ottawa. This time, however, the cause isn’t the acquisition of a new weapon system by Washington’s adversaries, but a change in America’s temperament and approach to alliances. The result is the prospect of an alarming new nuclear age in which, after nearly 40 years of reductions in global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, their numbers may be increasing once again.
Rogue states
In recent decades, fears of proliferation have focused on non-aligned states, such as India and Pakistan, or so-called ‘rogue’ regimes such as Iran or North Korea. Today, strikingly, it is American allies who are beginning to consider nuclear weapons of their own.
That is because Donald Trump’s bid to remake America’s approach to its alliances includes the possibility that Washington may also abandon the longstanding principle of nuclear nonproliferation that has been central to its grand strategy since the mid-1960s.Trump’s bid to remake America’s approach to its alliances includes the possibility that Washington will abandon the principle of nuclear nonproliferation.
When China became the fifth country to join the nuclear club in 1964, President Lyndon B Johnson convened a task force to study the consequences of nuclear proliferation. The committee, led by Roswell Gilpatric, reported back in 1965 with a stark conclusion: ‘Preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons is clearly in the national interest despite the difficult decisions that will be required.’
For the remainder of the Cold War, America tackled these ‘difficult decisions’ by persuading its allies that nuclear weapons of their own would be costly and risky – better to accept American protection instead. This meant placing US nuclear weapons on allied territory, certifying allied pilots to deliver them and creating new forums for consultation with allies on nuclear policy. When South Korea and Taiwan tried to go nuclear in the 1970s and 1980s, Washington applied decisive pressure to ensure they remained non-nuclear.
The US also sought to persuade the Soviet Union to collaborate on promoting a global system of nuclear nonproliferation, leading to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT. It came into force in 1970 and, with 191 parties, it is among the most effective arms control arrangements in history.
Goodbye nuclear optimism
With the end of the Cold War in 1991, a second nuclear age dawned. The Russian Federation inherited the nuclear stockpile of the Soviet Union. America unilaterally and through arms control with Russia reduced the size of its nuclear arsenal, drawing back its nuclear weapons deployed to Asia and nearly all of its nuclear weapons deployed to Europe.
The 1990s, despite crises in South Asia and the Korean Peninsula, was a moment of nuclear optimism. Global governance on nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament grew stronger as the NPT was extended indefinitely and a global Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty agreed. Between the mid-1980s and 2000, the global stockpile of nuclear warheads fell from 70,000 to around 12,500, where it remains today.
That optimism is now a distant memory. Relations between Russia and the West are the worst they have been since the Cold War. Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been backed by overt and covert nuclear threats. After February 2026, when the 2010 New START strategic arms treaty between the US and Russia expires, the two countries will be without limits on the size of their nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.
Meanwhile, China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces, aiming for an arsenal of up to 1,500 warheads, bringing it closer to parity with the US and Russia, which each possesses about 5,000 warheads. Arms control theorists continue to struggle to devise a plausible pathway to an equilibrium between Russia, America and China. A three-way arms race is likely.
The deterrence problem
In this third nuclear age, new and complex dynamics are emerging. North Korea is no longer a nonproliferation challenge, but a nuclear deterrence problem for the US. In April and May, India and Pakistan engaged in the most serious military exchange since their arrival as nuclear powers in 1998. Moreover, novel technologies, from cyber-weapons to artificial intelligence, have increased anxieties about new pathways to nuclear war.
For American allies in Europe and East Asia, these developments are leading to greater insecurity and anxiety. The world is more dangerous and, with it, the threat of conventional war between states and an ensuing nuclear conflict is higher than it has been in decades. An America that was faithful to the essential insight of the Gilpatric committee would respond to this with reassurance. Instead, at the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President JD Vance excoriated European values, suggesting a US administration that is uninterested in Europe’s sovereignty – perhaps even its survival. His speech echoed what Trump has long stated: that America’s allies have been taking Washington for a ride for decades, were undeserving of its protection and must ‘pay their fair share’.
At question now is America’s commitment to NATO and the Article 5 collective defence clause, including its willingness to maintain the US nuclear umbrella under which member states have sheltered. The ambivalence is underscored by Trump’s inconsistent pronouncements. Campaigning in the run-up to his first presidency, Trump suggested South Korea and Japan might need to acquire nuclear weapons, for instance. At other times he has termed the spread of nuclear weapons the ‘single biggest threat’ to the world.
At the same time, Trump has shown an interest in deep arms reductions with Russia and China, an objective that would become far more difficult should American ambivalence towards its allies push them to acquire nuclear weapons. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Germany, Poland, South Korea and Japan may be unlikely – but should it take shape and impinge upon the security interests of Moscow and Beijing, arms control and reduction among the major powers would be nigh-on impossible.
For America’s allies, these contradictions may be beside the point. America can no longer be treated as the cornerstone of their national defence, and relying on Washington for deterrence may be more of a liability than an asset. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, failed to persuade allies that their experience in Trump’s first term was an aberration and that the US was fundamentally ready to ‘repair our alliances and engage with the world once again’.
With Trump’s re-election, allies are starting to take matters into their own hands. European spending on national defence has spiked in the first months of 2025 and the continent’s two nuclear powers, Britain and France, are exploring ways to reassure European allies in order to prevent uncontrolled proliferation.
It is clear that the world can no longer take for granted longstanding principles of US grand strategy when it comes to nuclear weapons. The load-bearing pillar of American leadership in the global nuclear order is crumbling. But there are still options to avert the worst outcomes. First, Paris and London should, as a matter of urgency, seek to study the feasibility of erecting a new security architecture for Europe, built on the establishment of a new extended deterrence that incorporates their own nuclear capabilities. This is easier said than done. Neither has seriously contemplated operating in a world without US support. Also, France’s deterrent is more independent than Britain’s which relies on cooperation with the US.
Yet creative thinking and new investments – including in nonstrategic nuclear options – can show the rest of the continent that nuclear deterrence without America is not a lost cause, particularly when paired with investments by other European countries in substantial new non-nuclear defence capabilities, including long-range missiles and drones.
As nuclear negotiations show, US bilateral deal-making is no substitute for multilateralism
Second, the normative, legal and industrial barriers to the spread of nuclear weapons have grown substantially since the Cold War. For states with civil nuclear programmes, a secret weapons programme will be overwhelmingly risky and prone to detection thanks to the international system of nuclear safeguards, which has grown more robust.
Threats of preventive attacks, sabotage by adversaries, and economic sanctions are other significant considerations. States such as South Korea may consider openly pursuing nuclear weapons by invoking the NPT’s withdrawal clause citing threats to their national interests and survival. This path, understandable given North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal, would bring its own problems. Even with America’s blessing, Seoul would struggle to remain a globally integrated and prosperous state. China would impose sanctions, and wider diplomatic isolation would be a likely consequence.
As bad as matters could get with a mercurial second Trump administration, many states may conclude proliferation to be a leap into the unknown. Humanity’s coexistence with the bomb will continue to be perilous. From Europe to Asia and beyond, states interested in preserving global stability as America drifts will need to prioritize nuclear risks in their strategic calculus. While the America of old might one day return, allies and the rest of the world cannot count on that. In which case, others will need to come forward to uphold the pillars of the nuclear order
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TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS DIGEST, Monday, (06/09/2025)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
A new exhibit unveils the mystery behind an iconic photo of America’s ‘atomic age
Ideastream
… nuclear test site north of Las Vegas. … RASCOE: This week, there’s a new exhibit opening at the Atomic Museum, all about the photograph that might …
Fuse Welcomes Esteemed Former Nuclear and National Security Officials to Advisory Board
PR Newswire
Cloud Computing/Internet of Things · Computer … all legal, contractual, and regulatory matters for the company’s U.S. Government business.
A new exhibit unveils the mystery behind an iconic photo of America’s ‘atomic age | KGOU
KGOU
RASCOE: This week, there’s a new exhibit opening at the Atomic Museum, all about the photograph that might seem absurd to viewers in 2025. But in the …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
A reinvigorated push for nuclear power in space – SpaceNews
SpaceNews
Yet by the time his words echoed through the legislature, NASA and United States defense agencies were already exploring the use of atomic energy to …
Westinghouse Eyes US Reactor Deployment In Wake Of Trump Executive Orders, FT Reports
NucNet
Pennsylvania-based nuclear equipment company Westinghouse Electric has suggested it can build 10 new AP1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) units in …
Westinghouse pursuing US nuclear expansion with 10 large reactors after Trump orders: report
New York Post
A Westinghouse 16.5 megawatt generator sits in unit 4 at PG&E Corp.’s Drum Power House in Alta, California, U.S., on Monday, Aug …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Emergency core cooling system tank shipped for Xudabao 4 – World Nuclear News
World Nuclear News
The 80-tonne tank, which has a capacity of 60 cubic metres, was produced at the Petrozavodskmash plant of Rosatom’s machine-building division with …
Aging Pennsylvania power plant to keep running after Trump order on eve of shutdown
Pennsylvania Capital-Star
The U.S. Department of Energy says the plant will help avert an energy “emergency. … nuclear power accident in 1979. The restart, exclusively to …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Why America may be triggering a new era of nuclear proliferation | Chatham House
Chatham House
Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been backed by overt and covert nuclear threats. … The world is more dangerous and, with it, the threat of …
Washington Examiner: Does stopping Trump’s tariffs risk nuclear war?
Pacific Legal Foundation
… nuclear war. But at no time has a president required unlimited tariff authority to address foreign threats to the U.S.. Nevertheless, the …
Eastern Europe’s Cyber Reckoning: Russia’s Digital Threat Is Forcing a Strategic Shift
Inkstick Media
… threats,” Poland’s top cybersecurity official recently warned. In one … No Time for Nuclear War · Nuclear Weapons · Reporting …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Why America may be triggering a new era of nuclear proliferation | Chatham House
Chatham House
His pointed question was about whether the US would be prepared to defend its European NATO allies, thereby risking a nuclear attack by the Soviet …
Iran to present counter-proposal to U.S. in nuclear talks – Reuters
Reuters
Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia at War … DUBAI, June 9 (Reuters) – Iran will soon hand a counter-proposal for a …
Iran’s Chilling New Nuclear Threat; IAEA In Shock As Tehran Claims Bias – YouTube
YouTube
4:29 · Go to channel. 10 Nuclear Weapons, 50% Increase In Unriched Uranium? Iran Getting Ready For War? IAEA Reveals… MIRROR NOW New 1.2K views.
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
YVO’s plan for responding to future geological hazards in Yellowstone National Park
USGS.gov
Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists … Cover of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory response plan for geological …
White Island Volcano (New Zealand): Alert Level Lowered to 2 | VolcanoDiscovery
Volcano Discovery
Germany has a large number of volcanoes – most of them extinct, but the Eifel volcanic field is still potentially active. Yellowstone quakes.