Humanity Is Playing Nuclear Roulette

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/nuclear-proliferation-risks-iran-trump/683250/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo

Posted by theatlantic

5 comments

  1. The world is locked in a game of nuclear roulette—and the only way to win is to stop playing, Jeffrey Goldberg writes.

    Our August issue documents 80 years of life in the atomic age—and considers an uncertain nuclear future. Tom Nichols examines the immense authority that U.S. presidents hold as the sole arbiter of whether to use American nuclear weapons, and how Hollywood taught a generation to fear the bomb. Plus, Ross Andersen examines South Korea’s and Japan’s deliberations about building a nuclear weapon in response to Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from the region. 

    “We are living through one of the more febrile periods of the nuclear era,” Goldberg writes. “The contours of World War III are visible in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Pakistan and India, two nuclear states, recently fought a near-war; Iran, which has for decades sought the destruction of Israel through terrorism and other means, has seen its nuclear sites come under attack by Israel and the United States.”

    “Over the past 80 years, humanity has been saved repeatedly by individuals who possessed unusually good judgment in situations of appalling stress. Two in particular—­Stanislav Petrov and John Kelly—­spring to my mind regularly,” Goldberg writes. “Petrov is worth understanding because, under terrible pressure, he responded skeptically to an attack warning, quite possibly saving the planet. Kelly did something different, but no less difficult: He steered an unstable president away from escalation and toward negotiation.” 

    “No president has ever been anything close to a perfect steward of America’s national security and its nuclear arsenal, but Trump is less qualified than almost any previous leader to manage a nuclear crisis,”  Goldberg continues. The successful end of the Cold War caused many people to believe that the threat of nuclear war had receded—but, Goldberg contends, we forget at our peril.

    Read more: [https://theatln.tc/AObcLlJr](https://theatln.tc/AObcLlJr) 

    — Kate Guarino, senior associate editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*

  3. I find it funny some people still justify that they are the authority on this planet.

    That Iran, who was a democratic country. But was overthrown by the authority on this planet.

    Now is in turmoil cause of that, and wants to make a nuclear weapon to make sure foreign interference does not happen again?

    Kudos i say. Do what you have to, to make sure your life is not dictated from the other side of the globe.

  4. This is an intellectually lazy, deranged jump. Comparing Petrov to Kelly is ridiculous on its’ face.

  5. If you’re comparing John Kelly to Stanislav Petrov because he told Trump to stop insulting Kim Jong Un you’re not really interested in trying to do “journalism”, imo. Just not even remotely comparable.

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