President Donald Trump’s presence in the Oval Office has increased worries of a potential nuclear war. And the US and Russia - the world’s foremost nuclear powers - have had warheads pointed at each other since the earliest days of the Cold War. India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed enemies, could restart their decades-long squabble at any time. Last year, it seemed a nuclear conflict between the US and North Korea was on the horizon.

The widespread concern is understandable. A January 2018 World Economic Forum survey of 1,000 leaders from government, business, and other industries identified nuclear war as a top threat. “If I had to bet at least one nuclear weapon would be used in my lifetime,” says the 40-year-old Kroenig, “my bet would be yes.” When he asked that question again this spring, roughly 60 percent of his students raised their hands. That made sense, he told me, because in those days, “talking about nuclear war was like talking about dinosaurs - it’s just something from the past that won’t be something in our future.”īut the past couple of years have been different. He always asks the same question on the last day: How many of his students think they’ll see nuclear weapons used in their lifetime?įor many years, no more than one student would raise their hand. Matthew Kroenig has witnessed firsthand the growing fear that nuclear war is imminent.Ī professor at Georgetown University, he’s taught an undergraduate course on nuclear weapons and world politics for the past decade.

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