![]() nuclear arsenal must remain, in his phrase, at the “top of the pack.” But what does the rest of the pack look like? Where are we today? And what dangers might we head off? Trump, too, has embraced nuclear weapons as the ultimate trapping of his status, frequently expressing the notion that the U.S. During the campaign, this incredible power became shorthand for the awesome responsibility of the office, and the ground on which partisans battled over Trump’s fitness to serve as president. As commander-in-chief, he has the unfettered authority to order a nuclear strike-contrary to the widespread folk wisdom, no second “vote” is required. Indeed, the election of Donald Trump has triggered a renewed interest in the danger of nuclear war. Not, perhaps, to eliminate nuclear weapons in a single stroke, but to force a serious discussion about how to base our security on something other than the permanent threat of nuclear holocaust. Yet they also offer an opportunity, if we take it. The U.N.-sponsored nuclear-weapons-ban treaty negotiations-convened under the leadership of Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, and Sweden, and with the support of 120 countries worldwide and a host of disarmament groups-are deeply imperfect, having arisen in response to the hostility of the major nuclear-armed states to the idea of a nuclear weapons convention. Russia has announced the revival of myriad Soviet-era nuclear weapons programs, including new intermediate-range ballistic and cruise missiles, a new heavy intercontinental-range ballistic missile, nuclear-armed trains, and an underwater drone with a thermonuclear warhead that is designed to detonate in a port in a city like New York. The United States is committed to replacing its entire triad of nuclear-armed missiles, submarines, and bombers at a cost that may exceed a trillion dollars over 30 years. Instead, both countries are engaged in major modernization programs. The United States and Russia, as well as other nuclear states, are expected to boycott the talks in the hope that they can delegitimize the effort. This summer, for the first time, there will be a negotiation under the auspices of the United Nations on the convention banning the production, possession, and use of nuclear weapons. Listen to a narrated version of this essay: The French government detonated this thermonuclear bomb-an explosive force of 914 kilotons-on July 3, 1970, as part of a test conducted in Polynesia.
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