Overview
- The U.S. is assessing a return to explosive nuclear testing to carry out a presidential executive order after more than 30 years without tests.
- Germany and Poland have welcomed French proposals to extend France’s independent nuclear shield as a hedge against doubts about U.S. reliability.
- From the North Atlantic to the West Pacific, officials and commentators are now debating whether their countries should seek nuclear weapons.
- China and Russia have warned about potential proliferation in Japan and South Korea while continuing to upgrade their own arsenals.
- The U.S. remains the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in war, a fact that raises the political stakes for any move back to testing.