The new Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk warns that a new nuclear arms race may be underway, as more countries consider or seek to expand their arsenals.
An open-source online textbook and course on the current state of nuclear weapons, along with possible futures and global annihilation potential, has been launched by the University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), at a time when nuclear sabre-rattling is firmly back in the headlines.
At the heart of the new course is an examination of how these weapons shape today’s security environment, from geopolitical alliances to the potential for cyber-attacks on warhead facilities, and the dire need for democratic participation in nuclear debates.
“With the end of the Cold War, so many were relieved of the anxiety that nuclear war could be imminent,” said Prof S.M Amadae, an expert on nuclear security, who joined CSER last year as its director.
“Unfortunately, in the 21st century, the threat of proliferation and the escalation to nuclear war are growing once more, but a generation of researchers and arms control experts have passed on. It now falls on the shoulders of our generation to provide accessible knowledge of the existential risks of nuclear war.”
