Inside the Arms Control Association

For years, U.S. leadership has played a key role in shaping global efforts to reduce nuclear risks, but that leadership is now under strain. With federal expertise shrinking and philanthropic support fading, new initiatives like the Carnegie Corporation’s funding consortium are vital to revitalizing the nuclear policy field.

It has been barely a month since Inauguration day, but it is apparent that Donald Trump is determined to reshape U.S. foreign policy, radically alter alliance relationships, and upend Washington’s approach toward key adversaries, like Russia, in ways that are not yet clear.

The risk of nuclear conflict is higher than at any point since the end of the Cold War, and it appears to be growing. Major states are engaged in a qualitative arms race. At the same time the rules, norms, and treaties protecting us from the world’s most dangerous weapons, and against unconstrained nuclear buildups and the spread of nuclear weapons to additional states, are under increasing stress.