Reversing the Slide to Nuclear War—Explained

NTI joined world leaders and policy makers at the 2025 Munich Security Conference (MSC) to issue a statement on steps to reverse the slide to nuclear war and host a side event focused on reducing nuclear threats imperiling humanity.

Big thing at Munich: Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG) during the Munich Security Conference, “Three Essential Steps for Reversing the Slide to Nuclear War.”

Sixty-four former officials, military leaders, and experts call on nuclear-armed states in every region to take steps to reduce the risk of nuclear use.

The big picture: In January 2022, the leaders of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States together affirmed that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought” and that strategic risk reduction is among their foremost responsibilities. The reality of, and potential for, wars by nuclear-armed nations has created a more urgent context for the January 2022 statement.

Why it matters: Without practical steps to reduce nuclear risks, a conventional conflict leading into a nuclear catastrophe—whether by design or by blunder—becomes an ever-greater possibility.

Three steps forward, no steps back: An experienced group of sixty-four signatories representing 21 countries from the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions have identified three urgent steps for reducing nuclear risks that leaders of nuclear-armed states can take with the support of their allies and friends:

• Prevent a return to explosive nuclear testing and bolster the existing testing moratoria
• Advance nuclear fail-safe to strengthen safeguards against the unauthorized, inadvertent, or accidental use of nuclear weapons
• Affirm and strengthen the fundamental principles governing the use of outer space.

Case in point: Today, dialogue and formal arms control efforts have become increasingly challenging to execute and the development of cyber-threats and artificial intelligence has compounded the risk of nuclear disaster.

What they’re saying: “When you say major threat, to me, we have one really major threat, and that’s called nuclear weapons. The fact is it’s a tremendous problem, and we are closer to World War III today than we’ve ever been,” said President Donald Trump, at a Town Hall event in Flint, Michigan in September 2024.

Zoom out: As of February 2026, when the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires, there will no longer be a U.S.-Russian bilateral treaty limiting the arsenals of the world’s two biggest nuclear superpowers.

The bottom line: Reducing nuclear risks is a global challenge that requires a global solution; therefore, dialogue on nuclear risk reduction must be global, integrating unilateral, bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral solutions that include nuclear and non–nuclear-armed states.

Learn more: 

• Read the full EASLG statement
• Dive into the details of the New START Treaty
• Understand how a nuclear fail-safe review can help
• Read about other ways NTI is moving the world away from potential catastrophe