Fears of nuclear proliferation are growing in the world amid heightened geopolitical tensions, increased militarisation, and massive defence budgets. The fear reached new heights on June 13, when Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, in what it said was an aim to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
As Japan prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and August 9th, 2025, respectively, is the world heading towards a new nuclear arms race?
On 6 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan’s Hiroshima. Three days later, it dropped the second and last ever detonated atomic bomb used in warfare on Nagasaki. More than 200,000 people died as a direct result of the bombings, 38,000 of them children.
Jorgen Watne Frydnes, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, says a powerful international norm developed after the bombings, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. "This norm has become known as the 'nuclear taboo'. It is therefore alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure," he told AFP.
Despite the devastation caused by the bombs, countries continued to develop nuclear warheads in what became a nuclear arms race between the US, the former Soviet Union and their respective allies. Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, there are now growing concerns around a renewed nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has wielded the nuclear threat on a number of occasions since his country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, aiming to deter the West from militarily aiding Kyiv.
Russia possesses 5,459 nuclear warheads, the largest number in the world, just ahead of the United States which has 5,177, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data of January 2025. The two countries hold nearly 90% of the world's nuclear arsenal. (With AFP inputs)
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