Act to Prevent Nuclear War: What You Can Do

by John Whitehead

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Nuclear war is the greatest catastrophe that could befall life on this planet. Nuclear war would mean death on an unparalleled scale and the likely end of human civilization. 

Today, in 2025, the danger of nuclear war is greater than it has been in decades. We are living through a period of nuclear danger comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 or the extreme Cold War tensions of the 1980s. 

We see the danger of nuclear war in the ongoing war in Ukraine, which holds the potential to escalate into a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia. We see the danger in the gradual erosion over the past 25 years of the treaties and agreements meant to reduce nuclear weapons and the threat they pose. 

We see the danger in the recent nuclear saber-rattling from both Russia and the United States. Claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin about tests of new Russian weaponry were met by threats from US President Donald Trump that the United States could resume nuclear testing. In response, Putin has publicly contemplated a resumption of Russian nuclear tests. 

Whether or not these threats of renewed nuclear testing will be realized is unclear. That nuclear testing is even being contemplated is frightening enough, though. For Russia or the United States to begin detonating nuclear weapons again would have terrible consequences for human health and our natural environment, while also further increasing international tensions.

What Comes After New START? 

Another danger that deserves urgent attention is the danger posed by the imminent end of a very important nuclear arms control treaty, the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). The New START treaty sets important limits on both American and Russian nuclear weapons, restricting each country to 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons (a “strategic” nuclear weapon is one with significantly large destructive power). The New START treaty will expire in February of 2026, however. 

The end of New START, with no replacement treaty, makes it more likely that the United States and Russia will increase the numbers of nuclear weapons in their stockpiles. This could potentially set off a new nuclear arms race and heighten the dangers of nuclear war.

What We Can Do

We can take concrete steps to counter the growing nuclear danger. One crucial step is to support negotiations between the United States and Russia to reach a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace New START. Such an agreement would maintain current restrictions on nuclear weapons and ideally reduce the two countries’ nuclear weapons to lower levels than they are at today. Until such a new nuclear arms control agreement is reached, both the United States and Russia can agree to abide by the limits on nuclear weapons set by New START. 

Legislation currently before the United States Congress calls for precisely such negotiations to replace New START. This legislation is House Resolution 100 and Senate Resolution 61. 

All American citizens should urge our representatives (https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative) and senators (https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm) to support these resolutions. The Arms Control Association offers a helpful guide to contacting members of Congress on this issue.

Americans can also contact the Trump administration by email (https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/) or phone (202-456-1111) to urge the president both to maintain New START limitations for another year and to pursue further arms control negotiations with Russia.

Another positive step that we can take, which is also reflected in legislation currently before Congress, is to adopt the policy proposals championed by the Back from the Brink campaign. These Back from the Brink proposals are changes to current US policies on nuclear weapons that reduce the dangers of nuclear war. I will mention just two of these proposals.

The first proposal is to cancel plans to spend an appalling amount of money (some $1.7 trillion) on building a new generation of nuclear weapons for the United States. There are better uses for taxpayer money than spending it on weapons of mass killing. 

The second proposal is to take away the unchecked power to order the use of nuclear weapons that is currently held by the president of the United States. The president currently has the sole power to order the use of nuclear weapons. No other branch of government and no other official in the government have any legal power to say “no” to him. The fate of humanity rests on the judgment of one single human being. We need to change that and put checks on nuclear authority.

These and other proposals to check the threat of nuclear war are reflected in House Resolution 317 and Senate Resolution 323. Again, those of us who are Americans should urge our members of Congress, as well as the president, to support these resolutions. Back from the Brink offers a guide to contacting elected officials on this issue.

The nuclear threat today is very severe, but we have it in our power to counter that threat, to make nuclear war less likely. Let us act against the nuclear threat, for the sake of our planet and for the lives of all human beings everywhere.