Global nuclear arsenals increases, says Swedish arms watchdog

The United Kingdom’s security adviser, Stephen Lovegrove, has warned of a growing risk of nuclear confrontation with China and Russia. He further added that backdoor channels are crumbling during a time of technological advances and increasing rivalry in various spaces. “The Cold War’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR (Soviet Union) and NATO – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies “Doctrine is opaque in Moscow and Beijing, let alone Pyongyang or Tehran”.

For years, the number of nuclear weapons worldwide has been decreasing. However, SIPRI identified a reversal trend towards more modern nuclear weapons. Smile FM had the privilege of speaking with Hans Kristensen, the Associate Fellow with the SIPRI Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, about this reversal trend in nuclear arsenals:

The report was released a month before Russia invaded Ukraine. Because of this, Kristensen says it is a little too early to conclude how this will ultimately affect the nuclear situation in the world. But Russia has openly threatened the possible use of nuclear weapons in the course of its aggression:

Growing global nuclear stockpile — Credit: Al Jazeera

A worrying trend gaining momentum

SIPRI also notes that other nuclear states such as India, North Korea, Israel and Pakistan have all recently developed or deployed new weapon systems – or at least announced it. Furthermore – China, France, the UK and Us, and Russia – declared at the beginning of 2022 their intention to take action against the spread of nuclear weapons. But Kristensen says that SIPRI has seen all these nations expand their arsenals: