Contents
At practically the same time, the international campaign against nuclear weapons Ican, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri published new figures on nuclear weapons.
The nine countries that have nuclear bombs spent almost $83 billion on them last year. That’s $158,000 per minute. Spending on nuclear weapons has been rising for three years in a row; 2022 by three percent compared to the previous year.
In fact, practically all nuclear powers are currently heavily arming themselves. In the previous year alone, according to figures from Ican, China and Russia increased their spending on nuclear weapons by around six percent, India by almost 22 percent and Great Britain by eleven percent.
Russia and the USA at the top – still
Ninety percent of the world’s 12,500 nuclear warheads are still in American or Russian hands. But China now wants to bring its nuclear forces up to the level of the two largest nuclear powers and will do so in a few years. North Korea, on the other hand, now has around thirty nuclear bombs and enough fissile material for fifty to seventy more.
Britain raised the limit on its nuclear warheads from 225 to 260, France is investing in new submarines and missiles capable of launching nuclear bombs. Although the USA is not expanding its arsenal, it is investing tens of billions in modernizing it. The number of nuclear warheads that are not simply stored somewhere but would be ready for use in a very short time is also increasing.
The risk of an atomic bomb being used may be higher today than at any time since the height of the Cold War. This is by no means only related to the sheer number of ever more modern and thus destructive atomic bombs. But above all with the global political situation.
Nuclear arms control destroyed within a few years
The previous nuclear disarmament treaties were terminated. Most recently “New Start”, a treaty in which Moscow and Washington committed to reducing their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons. The architecture of nuclear arms control, which had been painstakingly built up over decades, was largely destroyed within a few years.
US President Joe Biden ignores the fact that the US is not currently expanding its nuclear arsenal, but is modernizing it for tens of billions. Business for companies that make their money from nuclear weapons is booming. According to figures from Ican, they currently spend well over a hundred million dollars a year on lobbying alone.
Progress especially when tensions are high?
Hope remains. In the past, there was sometimes progress when tensions were particularly high – for example after the Cuba missile crisis in 1962. However, the prospects for a resumption of nuclear disarmament negotiations are currently poor.
Russians and Americans are not currently negotiating with each other. China refuses in principle to take part in disarmament negotiations. North Korea doesn’t listen to anyone. Iran’s nuclear talks are deadlocked. And at their most recent summit in Hiroshima, the G7 countries failed to come up with an effective declaration for nuclear disarmament.
At the same time, no negotiations mean: no building of trust and less and less transparency about what the opponent is doing. All of this increases the risk.