“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity.”
Nov 12, 2025
Today’s Nuclear Related Image . . .
DEFENSE SECRETARY Pete Hegseth receives a signed executive order from US President Donald Trump to rename the defense department as the Department of War, in September 2025.
(photo credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)
LLAW’s All Things Nuclear Review Today . . .
This quote from the following article from the “Jerusalem Post“ by Louis Renee Beres tells us about all we need to know . . .
“Unless the United States and other states refuse to follow Donald Trump’s incoherent policies, a nuclear war could rage until every sturdy flower of culture had been trampled.”
The whole world seems to “get it” except the United States, and it is beyond me how or why Trump is still in office because he is now considered by so many world-wide — including a majority of U.S. citizens to be “incoherent” or “deranged”, and a dangerous liability for dozens upon dozens of reasons, not the the least of which is the possibility of him starting a nuclear war either purposefully or accidentally. Either way, it doesn’t matter because such a nuclear war would be a “Doomsday” war. ~llaw
Today’s Feature Story from LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD TODAY is from category. . .
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Trump’s risky nuclear policy: ‘Tepid legality’ is preferable to ‘maximum lethality’ – opinion
Unless the United States and other states refuse to follow Donald Trump’s incoherent policies, a nuclear war could rage until every sturdy flower of culture had been trampled.
DEFENSE SECRETARY Pete Hegseth receives a signed executive order from US President Donald Trump to rename the defense department as the Department of War, in September 2025.
(photo credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)
NOVEMBER 12, 2025 02:24
Updated: NOVEMBER 12, 2025 02:31
Under the tutelage of Donald Trump, the United States faces growing risks of a nuclear war. These risks could be manifested incrementally or all at once. They concern both intentional and unintentional conflicts.
World peace requires enforceable world law. However, in announcing a Department of Defense name-change to Department of War on September 5, 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth promised “maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” The message was clear: Better an invigoratingly hot war than a disappointingly lukewarm peace.
Could there be any justification for reaching such a jumbled conclusion? Modern international rules were codified at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and seventeenth-century anarchy is now morphing into something much more ominous. Such ongoing transformation owes to the increasing complexity of strategic decision-making in world politics. As a dynamic process, this transformation can be understood only with correspondingly complex thought.
The dangers of a nuclear war
The new Netflix movie A House of Dynamite offers a scenario in which the nuclear aggressor is not readily identifiable. In the real world, this scenario is entirely credible. As the number of nuclear powers increases, the plausibility of an “anonymous attacker scenario” must also increase. Even without verifiable expansion of nuclear weapon states, accelerating the arms race by American renewals of nuclear testing would open a Pandora’s box of potentially irremediable harms.
Since the 17th century, global stability has depended on a presumed balance of power. Still, this “balance” has never been anything more than a simplifying fiction. In today’s world of rapidly approaching chaos, longstanding security deficits are being exacerbated. In the Middle East, the strategies of a simplifying American president could have survival consequences for the State of Israel.
For both Washington and Jerusalem, no choice between mad and irrational adversaries will be available. Whether the United States would do better to confront irrationality, madness or both will not be President Trump’s decision to make. On this predictable incapacity, Washington’s only sensible imperative should be to base all principal conflict-related decisions, especially nuclear war avoidance, on solid intellectual foundations.
WHAT SHOULD reasonably be expected concerning the rising risks of nuclear war? In brief, there will be no solutions from competent political authority; no reassuring answers in common sense. It is only by elevating science-based logic above a president who reasons by intuition that the United States and Israel could avoid irremediable harms.
Even though we humans ought to have become more civilized since the 17th century Peace of Westphalia, species survival has never been a linear process. Unless the United States and other states refuse to follow the incoherent policies of a president who has no attention to spare for serious reasoning, a nuclear war could rage until every sturdy flower of culture had been trampled. At that no longer unimaginable stage, millions could perish in paroxysmal quakes of primordial unreason.
There is one final conclusion. Since the seventeenth century, our anarchic world can best be described as a “system.” Events in any one part of this ungovernable world could affect what happens in some or all other parts. When deterioration is marked and begins to spread from one state to another, corollary effects would undermine the presumed infrastructures of balance. When deterioration is rapid and catastrophic, as would be the case following the start of unconventional war or unconventional terrorism, cascading harms would become unmanageable.
More than at any previous time in American history, this is a moment to prefer “tepid legality” to “maximum lethality.” This observation is not meant to minimize the importance of a strong nuclear deterrence posture, but rather to acknowledge that any acceleration of nuclear arms competition would dangerously undermine this posture. Ipso facto, any such weakening would negatively impact the State of Israel.
The writer is an emeritus professor of international law at Purdue University and the author of many books and scholarly articles on international law, nuclear strategy, nuclear war, and terrorism, including Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016; second edition, 2018).
TODAY’s LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS
About Today’s Nuclear News and How it Works:
There are 7 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcano and caldera activity around the world that also play an important role in the survival of human and other life.
The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). If there was no news from a Category today, the Category will not appear. The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War Threats
- Nuclear War
- Yellowstone Caldera
- IAEA News (Friday’s only)
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Nuclear World News for Wednesday, (11/12/2025)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Iran rebuilding after U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities, report says – Iowa Public Radio
Iowa Public Radio
NPR’s Steve Inskeep talks to Joseph Rodgers, the author of a report on Iran’s development of nuclear … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The …
Iran rebuilding after U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities, report says – NPR
NPR
All Things Considered · Fresh Air · Up First. Featured. Embedded · The NPR … about 14 of the top, leading nuclear scientists in the Iranian nuclear …
Kremlin warns of ‘dangerous’ nuclear rhetoric – CNN
CNN
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov tells CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen about what he describes as “dangerous” nuclear rhetoric in an exclusive interview …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Nuclear power is making a comeback, says IEA
World Nuclear News
After more than two decades of stagnation, global nuclear power capacity is set to increase by at least one-third to 2035, according to the latest …
Wylfa nuclear power station: US ambassador backs large-scale plans – BBC News
BBC
The US ambassador to the UK has urged the UK government to commit to a large-scale nuclear power station at Wylfa on Anglesey.
Energy Department to lend most loans for nuclear power plant projects – CBS Austin
CBS Austin
… nuclear power plants — to get those first plants built.” The secretary, speaking at a conference held by the American Nuclear Society, noted that …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Officials issue warning after concerning incident at nuclear power plant: ‘An emergency situation’
The Cool Down
Ukrainian officials have been very worried after the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — recently lost its external power …
Officials issue warning after concerning incident at nuclear power plant: ‘An emergency situation’
NewsBreak
Ukrainian officials have been very worried after the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — recently lost its external power supply …
Improving the safety of the population: Federal Council wants to close gaps in the planning … – Save
Save
… nuclear power plant accident. Thanks to its simple core idea and its modular structure with the three elements «emergency meeting points …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Russia-US: All Set for New Nuclear Weapons Tests? – Kyiv Post
Kyiv Post
“I think that such a nuclear confrontation (not a war) … Neatkarīgā compares today’s nuclear threats between West and East with those of the 1980s ( …
Trump’s policies can lead to a nuclear war | The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
Regarding Israel, this means a better understanding of nuclear war risks involving Pakistan and North Korea. … threats of military deterrence.
Pacific CSOs condemn US plans to hold nuclear tests – Islands Business
Islands Business
… nuclear arms race. The Pacific collective warned that renewed nuclear testing and ongoing threats by nuclear armed states posed grave dangers to …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Russia will conduct nuclear tests if other nuclear power resume them, Lavrov says – Reuters
Reuters
Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia at War … Russia will conduct nuclear tests if other nuclear power resume them, …
The Security Brief: Trump and Putin bring back nuclear threat | BBC News – YouTube
YouTube
Save. Report. Comments. Add a comment… 14:31 · Go to channel · Russia is waging a war against Europe – here’s the proof. Channel 4 News New 174K …
INTERVIEW: How humanity could be destroyed in an afternoon – triple j – ABC News – ABC News
How Venezuela is Preparing for a Possible U.S. Attack – Time Magazine
Time Magazine
The carrier joins eight warships, a nuclear submarine, F-35 jets, and some 10,000 U.S. personnel already deployed to the region in previous months …
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
15 Active Volcanoes In America That Could Blow Tomorrow – AOL.com
AOL.com
Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming. A volcano erupting. Shutterstock. The Yellowstone Caldera is not just a tourist hot spot; it’s one …
Eruption highlights rarely considered risk – Business Insurance
Business Insurance
The Yellowstone supervolcano has a caldera, or a geographic depression …