The Critical Mass Project

Public opinion research commissioned by the Critical Mass Project shows that most people would prefer a world without nuclear weapons, but they are split on whether they believe that future is possible. An even smaller slice believes they have a role to play in creating it.

At the same time, nuclear risks are on the rise. The world faces a new three-way nuclear arms race between the United States, Russia, and China. Technology is adding complexities to an already-fragile system that is based on the threat of mass destruction. The world is only one mistake, miscalculation, or blunder away from a disaster that could change everything.

At another risky moment in history—the Cold War—people spoke up and public demand, fueled partly by popular culture, helped reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world from 70,000 in the 1980s to 12,000 today. Now, for the first time in decades, the number of nuclear weapons in the world is projected to go up.

Public engagement and advocacy are badly needed to reverse a new arms race that has the United States on track to spend $2 trillion on nuclear weapons over three decades. The Critical Mass Project uses the levers of storytelling and campaigns to organize civil society to shift beliefs and demand policy change.

Critical Mass leverages cultural moments to remind people that we can make nukes history and creates cultural moments by organizing digital demonstrations of support for a world without nuclear weapons. The Project reaches the persuadable public where they get their news online and identifies ways that leaders in civil society can take action to reduce nuclear risks or protect existing policies such as the long-held U.S. moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.

Meaningful progress on nuclear threat-reduction is only possible with an engaged and informed public pushing elected representatives to reduce nuclear risks and support steps toward a world without nuclear weapons.