What is this problem and how much does it matter?

What is our analysis based on?

• The Open Philanthropy report on nuclear security.
• Chapter 18: The continuing threat of nuclear war, Joseph Cirincione, in Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Bostrom and Cirkovic.
• Work by the Future of Life Institute and Global Catastrophic Risks Institute.

What is this problem and what are the arguments for working on it?

Despite reductions in nuclear weapons arsenals following the Cold War, there are still around 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world, with the United States and Russia in possession of >95% of the world’s weapons. These weapons have the potential to cause suffering and destruction on an unprecedented scale. A 1979 report by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment estimated that in an all-out nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, 35-77% of the U.S. population (105-230 million people) and 20-40% of the Russian population (28-56 million people) would die within the first 30 days of the attack.³

The problem of Nuclear security, explained by 3 Minute Physics

Although initial effects from such a nuclear exchange would be horrible, the after-effects could be worse. A nuclear exchange could cause a nuclear winter – a release of black carbon into the atmosphere, blocking the Sun’s thermal energy, and lowering temperatures regionally and globally for several years, opening up new holes in the ozone layer protecting the Earth from harmful radiation, reducing global precipitation by about 10%, triggering crop failures, and resulting in widespread food shortages. Nonetheless, there remains controversy about whether the effects of a nuclear winter would be merely bad, or a complete catastrophe, and how many nuclear weapons would have to be detonated for long-lasting climatic effects to be triggered.⁴

A large nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack could destroy a large fraction of electronics-based infrastructure in a country, with a recent report estimating that up to 90% of the U.S. population could die from starvation, disease, and societal breakdown in the ensuing 12 months after such an attack.⁵

Although the risk of such a catastrophic nuclear exchange is fairly low, because neither side would want such an outcome, there remains some possibility of:

1. escalation from a traditional conflict over, e.g. the independence of Taiwan, unintentionally leading to a nuclear war;
2. one side believing incorrectly that they are being attacked due to a technical error and retaliating;
3. a highly irresponsible leader being elected to a nuclear power, or a breakdown in the nuclear chain of command.

Chatham House has compiled 16 examples of nuclear ‘near misses’ through history that include examples of each of these risks.⁶

Nuclear war is thought to create some risk of outright human extinction. A survey of academics at the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference by Oxford University estimated a 1% chance of human extinction from nuclear wars over the 21st Century.⁷

What are the major arguments against working on it?

This area receives a lot of attention already from governments, the military, think tanks, international organisations (such as the United Nations), and non-profits (like the Ploughshares Fund). It is almost universally recognised as a risk that needs to be reduced. As a result it is likely less neglected than other problems.

Because the risk is dominated by decisions at the highest levels of foreign policy and the military, it is hard for most people to have an influence over the problem without dedicating their career to building expertise and credibility.

Because of the nature of nuclear deterrence and conflict between countries, there is the risk of unintended effects. For example, countries maintaining an aggressive posture in which they say they will use nuclear weapons if attacked could make the world safer, by discouraging other countries from threatening them even indirectly.

If one is concerned with the long-run future of humanity, the chance of nuclear war resulting in complete human extinction appears low. Luke Oman estimates the probability “for the global human population of zero resulting from the 150 Tg of black carbon scenario in our 2007 paper would be in the range of 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100,000.”⁸ This being said, we think this estimate is too low, as it doesn’t account for the potential for weaknesses in their model or the risk of a societal collapse causing a permanent reduction in humanity’s ability to reach its potential (which is nonetheless an existential risk even if people remain).⁹

Key judgement calls you need to make

• Mutually assured destruction – A nuclear war would almost completely destroy both countries that waged a nuclear war. You need to decide whether this is sufficiently reliable to prevent nuclear war. We think it is a pretty good deterrent, but not sufficient to completely eliminate the risk.
• Importance of existential risks – This problem has a particularly large scale if you place value on mitigating a disaster that would prevent the existence of all future generations. We think this is indeed very important.
• Comfort with uncertainty – It is not possible to have strong evidence that interventions to solve this problem will succeed, so you need to be comfortable with a high chance of not having any influence.
• Likelihood of recovery from collapse – If there were a nuclear catastrophe and ensuing societal collapse, how likely is it we would be able to recover back to our present state? We think this is unclear, though think recovery is more likely than not.

What can you do about this problem?

What approaches exist for solving this problem?

There are a range of possible options for reducing the risk of nuclear conflict, none of which we have yet investigated in great detail:

• Work on improving foreign relations between the main nuclear powers and defusing any potential (the US, UK, France Russia and China);
• Convince politicians or voters in these countries to prioritise avoiding war above other concerns;
• Ensure that monitoring of first strikes, and communication between nuclear powers, is sufficiently good to prevent a false alarm escalating into an full-scale war;
• Ensure nuclear materials are safely guarded and can not be used by rogue actors;
• Prevent the development of ballistic missile defense in the U.S. in hopes of making U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China mutual arms reductions more likely;
• Work on improving foreign relations at other nuclear weapon flashpoints, such as India and Pakistan, North Korea, or Iran and Israel;
• Shrink nuclear stockpiles;
• Improve civilian hardening of infrastructure in the face of an EMP attack;
• Improve adaptation and recovery in the face of an EMP attack;
• Improve resilience of the food supply to nuclear winter/EMP;
• Prevent nuclear proliferation.

Most of these opportunities are only available within the foreign policy, intelligence and military establishment of nuclear powers.

A few, such as peace activism, increasing cooperation between the nuclear powers, or foreign policy research, can be conducted independently through e.g. think tanks and academia.

Open Philanthropy in their shallow investigation of the topic concluded that “the largest potential gaps in this space appear to be work on nuclear weapons policy outside of the U.S. and U.S.-based advocacy, with the former gap being larger but harder for a U.S.-based philanthropist to fill.”

Another option is to work on this problem indirectly by reducing the risk of great power conflict, which we list separately.

What skill sets and resources are most needed?

• Technical expertise in nuclear weapons policy;
• Expertise in diplomacy, foreign policy and minimising the risk of war;
• Influence over public attitudes.

The above skills sets are also most needed particularly relating to countries where there are existing or potential stockpiles, such as the U.S., Russia, Pakistan, India, Israel, Iran and North Korea.

Who is working on this problem?

The area is a significant focus for governments, security agencies, philanthropists, and intergovernmental organisations.

Some fraction of all work in government agencies in the nuclear powers dedicated to foreign policy, diplomacy, military and intelligence is directed at ensuring nuclear war does not occur. While it is hard to know exactly how much, it is likely to be in the billions of dollars or more in each country.

The U.S. budget for nuclear weapons is comfortably in the tens of billions.¹⁰ Some significant fraction of this is presumably dedicated to control, safety, and accurate detection of attacks on the US. Zooming out, the US Department of State has a budget of $66 billion while the military spends over half a trillion dollars each year.¹¹

Outside of the government, a 2012 report estimated that funding from foundations for work on nuclear security between 2010 and 2012 was around $31 million per year.¹² To this we can also add the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which is not funded by foundations, and whose 2015 budget is about $17-18m.¹³

In addition to this, some intergovernmental organizations devote substantial funding to nuclear security issues. For example, in 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency has a budget of €361m.¹⁴

• The Nuclear Threat Initiative is a U.S. non-partisan think tank that works to prevent catastrophic attacks and accidents with nuclear, biological, radiological, chemical, and cyber weapons of mass destruction and disruption. The NTI also sponsers the William J. Perry Project, an initiative from former Secretary of Defense William Perry to educate the public about the continuing threat of nuclear weapons. See current NTI vacancies.

• Ploughshares Fund is a the largest U.S. philanthropic foundation focused exclusively on peace and security grantmaking. It supports initiatives to reduce current nuclear arsenals and to limit the likelihood of nuclear war (and to a lesser extent risks from chemical and biological weapons). See current vacancies.
• The Future of Life Institute works to reduce the risks from a number of areas, in particular nuclear war, pandemics, and advanced AI. See current vacancies.
• Global Catastrophic Risk Institute is an independent research institute that investigates how to minimise the risks of large scale catastrophes, such as from nuclear war. See current vacancies.

• Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) performs R&D on alternate foods that could be quickly scaled up to feed everyone despite nuclear winter, and coordinates preparedness and planning. Contact ALLFED to volunteer or apply to an open position.

What can you concretely do to help?

• Obtain technical skills in this policy area through undergraduate or graduate studies, or apply to work in relevant parts of the government and military.
• Apply to the Nuclear Scholars Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The program is a good opportunity for current graduate students and early career professionals to get to know senior people in nuclear policy.
• Apply to work at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, MacArthur Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, Carnegie Corporation, Brookings Institute, Chatham House, RAND, Belfer Center, Wilson Center or other think tanks that work on nuclear security.
• Donate to the Future of Life Institute, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters, or the Global Catastrophic Risks Institute.
• Work on a relevant Effective Thesis.

Less promising options we nonetheless think are worth mentioning include:

• Work on increasing food storage, which is expensive.
• Improving the attitudes of people in the main nuclear powers towards one another, especially mutual understanding or respect among political elites.

A smaller action suggested by the Future of Life Institute is to divest from companies that support nuclear weapons development, or encourage others to do so. We don’t know how much of an effect this could have on public opinion.

Find opportunities on our job board

Learn more

• 80,000 Hours podcast with Andy Weber on rendering bioweapons obsolete and ending the new nuclear arms race
• 80,000 Hours podcast with Joan Rohlfing on how to avoid catastrophic nuclear blunders
• 80,000 Hours podcast with Samuel Charap on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects of this on nuclear security (published March 2022)
• Video series on understanding current nuclear strategy and proliferation
• Video series on the history of nuclear proliferation
• Why despite global progress, humanity is probably facing its most dangerous time ever
• Podcast: “It’s my job to worry about any way nukes could get used”
• Podcast: “The Logic of Doomsday” with William J. Perry and Sam Harris.
• Open Philanthropy on Nuclear Weapons Policy.
• Podcast series: At the Brink
• Chapter 18: The continuing threat of nuclear war, Joseph Cirincione, Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Bostrom and Cirkovic.
• How the Global Catastrophic Risks Institute is tackling the problem.
• ALLFED publications on food system resilience.
• Our mini profile on reducing great power conflict.

• Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all
• David Denkenberger on using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastrophe, ft Sahil Shah