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NTI President Joan Rohlfing is featured in a new article in The New York Times on neuroscience and nuclear decisionmaking. “The threat of nuclear use today, I believe, is as high as it has ever been in the nuclear age,” Rohlfing told The Times.
Rohlfing debunks the assumption rooted in all nuclear war planning that decisions about nuclear weapon use are being made by rational actors.
“We all know that humans make mistakes,” said Rohlfing. “We don’t always have good judgment. We behave differently under stress. And there are so many examples of human failures over the course of history. Why do we think it’s going to be any different with nuclear?”
The article highlights an NTI-sponsored project to “apply insights from cognitive science and neuroscience to nuclear strategy and protocols — so leaders won’t bumble into atomic Armageddon.”
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New YouGov polling commissioned by NTI and ReThink Media finds that nearly 80 percent of registered voters, across party lines, say it is in the interest of U.S. national security to work with China to mitigate catastrophic threats associated with nuclear risks, AI development, and bioterrorism.
The Summit can produce outcomes that strengthen U.S. national security and reduce global nuclear and biological risks
New START, the last remaining arms control treaty capping U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, expires on February 5. This marks the beginning of a dangerous new era. For the first time in several decades, there will be no limits on nuclear weapons, less visibility into Russian nuclear weapons activities, and fewer tools to manage a crisis between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.
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