Assuring destruction forever: Important new report on nuclear modernization programs from Reaching Critical Will

Assuring destruction forever: nuclear weapon modernization around the world

soft cover • 152 pages • March 2012
PDF available online for free
Hard copies available for $8 + s/h

As of March 2012, the nuclear weapon possessors—China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are estimated to possess approximately 19,500 nuclear weapons. All of them have plans to modernize—upgrade and/or extend the lives of—their nuclear weapons.

Reaching Critical Will has coordinated and edited a new study on the modernization plans and programs of eight of the nuclear-armed states (all except the DPRK, due to lack of publicly available information on its program).

In Assuring destruction forever (which echoes the phrase “mutually assured destruction” from the decades of the Cold War), non-governmental researchers and analysts provide information on each country’s modernization prospects. They also analyze the costs of nuclear weapons in the context of the economic crisis, austerity measures, and rising challenges in meeting human and environmental needs. There are eight country chapters followed by three “thematic” chapters that address issues of international law, divestment, and political will. The country chapters are chock full of detailed information about nuclear weapon programs and policies while the thematic chapters analyze these policies in a broader context.