1、SIPRI Yearbook 2025:Armaments,Disarmament and International Securitywww.sipriyearbook.org1.International stability,human security and the nuclear challengedan smithI.IntroductionIn 2025 the world marks the 80th anniversary of the only times that nuclear weapons have been used in warthe bombings of H
2、iroshima on 6August 1945 and Nagasaki three days later.In those eight decades,a great deal of death and destruction has been meted out in war but the taboo against using nuclear weapons has survived and grown stronger.This is,as the Nobel Peace Prize Committee noted when awarding the 2024 Peace Priz
3、e to the movement of Japanese nuclear survivors(hibakusha),Nihon Hidankyo,an encouraging fact.1 Nonetheless,new risks mean it is worth reviewing todays nuclear challenge.Nuclear weapons pose existential risk for the world population,as does ecological disruption,the impact of which on peace and stab
4、ility is starting to be felt in a context in which insecurity is already on the rise for other reasons.2 The 2020s have so far seen more numerous armed conflicts compared to the previous three decades,with higher war fatalities and increased displacement of people.3 Great power confrontation has ret
