CaliToday (13/10/2025): The Cold War may be a distant memory, but its deadliest legacy remains fully intact and ready to fire. A staggering 12,241 nuclear warheads still exist globally, with the United States and Russia possessing nearly 90% of the world's total arsenal. More chillingly, a significant portion of this doomsday machinery is kept on "hair-trigger alert," capable of being launched in mere minutes.
According to the latest data from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the nuclear threat has not faded; it has merely evolved. While the sheer number of weapons has decreased since the height of the Cold War, the immediate danger has arguably grown more complex. Of the total global stockpile, an estimated 2,100 warheads are currently in a state of high operational alert. This means they are deployed on missiles or at bomber bases, ready for launch upon a moment's notice, creating a terrifyingly thin margin for error or miscalculation.
The global nuclear landscape is also undergoing a dramatic and destabilizing shift. While legacy nuclear powers like the United States, the United Kingdom, and France have been gradually reducing their arsenals, a new and aggressive arms race is accelerating elsewhere.
"We are witnessing an unprecedented expansion," an FAS report notes. China, India, and North Korea are enlarging and modernizing their nuclear stockpiles at a rapid pace. This shift from a bipolar standoff to a multipolar arms race creates a far less predictable and more dangerous global environment.
Experts warn that this new reality, fueled by strategic competition between major powers and escalating regional tensions, is resurrecting the existential dread of a bygone era. The "ghost of a new Cold War" now looms over international relations, where nuclear deterrence is once again a central, and volatile, element of statecraft.
The situation has become so precarious that the conversation is no longer about prevention, but about a race against time. As one expert from the Federation of American Scientists grimly concluded:
“The question is no longer if a nuclear war could happen – but whether humanity can stop it in time.”
This stark warning serves as a powerful reminder that while the world has changed, the ultimate threat of nuclear annihilation remains locked, loaded, and waiting.
