NTI Releases New Paper on Navigating Disruption in the Global Nuclear Order

Rising geopolitical tensions, ongoing regional conflicts, and rapid technological change are fundamentally disrupting the global nuclear order. Long-standing norms, agreements, and institutions that have helped prevent nuclear catastrophe for nearly eight decades are under strain, with the risk of nuclear use at its highest point since the Cold War.

In response to this perilous moment, NTI has released a new paper, Navigating Disruption in the Global Nuclear Order: Managing Risks and Shaping a New Way Forward, which examines the factors contributing to the disruption of the existing architecture, proposes near-term principles and steps for managing this perilous moment, and emphasizes the urgency of moving toward a more resilient and stable system where nuclear risks are greatly reduced.

The report includes:

• A framework of enduring principles to prevent nuclear use and reinforce key global norms, including the nuclear taboo, nonproliferation commitments, and testing moratoria
• Concrete steps and new approaches to reduce risks in today’s increasingly complex, multipolar, and technologically evolving landscape
• A call for bold, sustained leadership to lay the foundation for a future security system that reduces reliance on nuclear weapons.

“Unfortunately, too many of our leaders and experts have learned the wrong lesson from humanity’s flirtations with disaster,” write NTI’s Ernest J. Moniz and Joan Rohlfing in the foreword. “Instead of clinging to the false hope that our luck will hold indefinitely, we must develop new approaches for preventing nuclear use before our good fortune runs out.”

Download the full report here.