The post-Cold War promise of a world without nuclear war is fading, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
Russian President Vladmir Putin has touted his nuclear arsenal at the same time North Korea's arsenal is expanding and Iran is developing nuclear weapons, the Journal reported. A treaty between the U.S. and Russia that caps how may nuclear weapons both countries deploy expires in 2026.
"The shared consensus among great powers on the importance of nonproliferation — which was critical to building and sustaining the nonproliferation regime since the 1960s — has eroded," said Eric Brewer, a former director for counterproliferation at the National Security Council to the Journal. "I think at a minimum we're going to end up in a world with more countries that are capable of building nuclear weapons."
The 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commits countries without a nuclear bomb to using nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes. To date, 191 countries have signed the treaty, aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.
Saudia Arabia has said if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, it will develop one, too, while South Korea and Turkey have talked about developing nuclear weapons, the Journal reported.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked fear of Russia using nuclear weapons, especially after Putin unveiled a nuclear doctrine that laid out when Russia would use them in warfare.
"Russia used its nuclear weapons as a cover for the 2022 aggression, when it wanted to prevent Western countries from coming to support of Ukraine," Lukasz Kulesa, director of proliferation and nuclear policy at the U.K.'s Royal United Services Institute think tank, told the Journal.
China is also ramping up its nuclear arsenal. According to the Department of Defense, China's current nuclear arsenal of roughly 500 weapons will reach 1,500 by 2035, putting the country on level with Russia and the U.S.