Power & Security, Technology Watch Now: Worst Case Scenarios: Thermonuclear War

In the 75 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has often come frighteningly close to all-out thermonuclear war – near-misses and accidents abound in the history of nuclear weapons. What if the world does not remain this lucky? As geopolitical tensions escalate around the world, and nuclear powers “modernize” their arsenals with new technologies, nuclear war appears more likely than ever — the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ clock is as close to “doomsday” as it has ever been. What would the worst-case scenario, an all-out thermonuclear exchange, look like? And how can the world’s nations and international organizations work together to prevent such a war from breaking out?

We "thought about the unthinkable" in this edition of The World Today’s Worst Case Scenarios with two experts on nuclear weapons and nuclear war: William Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and Rachel Bronson, President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

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