![]() ![]() A simulation of nuclear war conducted by Princeton University in 2020 showed that if even one tactical strike is made by any nuclear power, it could result in the immediate death of 91.5 million people ‘deaths from nuclear fallout and other long-term effects would significantly increase this estimate’, wrote the researchers. The essays in this text provide a close assessment of the policy of the United States, which aims to maintain its control over the international system, including through its pursuit of nuclear primacy and willingness to launch even a ‘limited nuclear war’ to attain its ends. The first study in this series, produced in collaboration with Monthly Review and No Cold War, is called The United States Is Waging a New Cold War: A Socialist Perspective. ![]() Takano Aya (Japan), Dun Huang’s Room, 2006. Our Studies on Contemporary Dilemmas are intended to stimulate debates around the broad issues of our times with the hope that these debates will galvanise social forces to prevent the impending doomsday. Elements of the policies needed in the world have been sitting in amber inside the United Nations Charter for decades, ignored by those who hoard power, privilege, and property. We do not lack in ideas or resources the problem is that we lack in political power. The solutions to these dilemmas are not beyond our capacity to resolve our planet contains the resources needed to address them. These dilemmas include the pressing questions of the climate and environmental catastrophe, the wastefulness of military spending and the perils of warfare, and the deepening sensibility of despair and individualism. ![]() To contribute to the dialogue about this ‘most dangerous situation’, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research has launched a new series of texts called Studies on Contemporary Dilemmas. ![]() This is the ‘most dangerous situation that humanity has faced’, said former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. The motivation for this alarming setting was the unilateral withdrawal by the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. Since 2020, the clock has sat at ‘doom’s doorstep’ – 100 seconds from midnight. The closest to midnight that the clock has been is now. The farthest that the clock has been from midnight was in 1991, when it was set at 17 minutes from midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who attend to this clock, originally set the device at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight being, essentially, the end of the world. Since 1947, the Doomsday Clock has measured the likelihood of a human-made catastrophe, namely to warn the world against the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. In effect, we are currently 90 seconds away from midnight.León Ferrari (Argentina), Untitled ( Sermon of the Blood), 1962. In addition, infectious diseases and biosecurity are substantial concerns for the Bulletin, as is “cyber-enabled disinformation” and its genuine threat to democracy. Because of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions and severe weather events, the threat of climate change was also a significant concern. The Bulletin confirmed that they had also taken into consideration the fact that China, North Korea, Iran, and India all increased their nuclear capabilities in recent times. The groups’ decision was also influenced by the climate crisis and the further breakdown of worldwide norms and institutions required to counteract the dangers of advanced technology and biological threats like recent virus outbreaks. government, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock.” Ĩ Single Events Cannot Influence the ClockĪs reported by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the move of the clock’s hands was primarily motivated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago and an increased risk of nuclear escalation. 90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. It symbolizes humanity’s impending global catastrophe, defined by midnight on the dials.Īccording to Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. In such a climate, the clock serves as a foreboding warning of the worldwide threat of nuclear war. More recently, escalations in the Ukraine war have led Western military commanders to publicly discuss an impending war with Russia. Today we know that threats of nuclear annihilation were indeed being exchanged on an almost monthly basis between Trump and Kim-Jong Un. The decision to move the clock’s hands to 90 seconds before midnight comes after a tumultuous year in world affairs. ![]()
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