The American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the risk of nuclear war is increasing due to conflicts in various parts of the world. The analysis highlighted that important steps were taken towards nuclear disarmament after the Cold War, but recent conflicts have once again brought the risk of nuclear war to the forefront.

The American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an evaluation on the escalating nuclear armament worldwide. The end of the Cold War promised the world freedom from nuclear nightmares. Governments that had long maintained hostilities agreed to eliminate warheads and collaborated to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. This promise is now fading.

THE WORLD IS ARMING WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his new nuclear doctrine last month, signaling that Moscow is ready to use atomic bombs in defense. Additionally, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is expanding. Iran is close to developing usable nuclear weapons, creating fears of an arms race in the Middle East. Nine countries, including the US, Russia, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea, possess nuclear weapons. However, experts warn that this number could increase in the future.

THE ONLY COUNTRY SCRAPPING NUCLEAR WEAPONS South Africa, which developed a small nuclear arsenal, became the first and only country to scrap its nuclear weapons in the early 1990s. Nuclear weapons are monitored through the UN’s Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT was opened for signature on July 1, 1968, with the aim of preventing countries from engaging in a nuclear arms race following the US’s use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II in 1945.