This morning, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released a report which finds that the world’s nine nuclear-armed states continue to modernize their nuclear weapons as the countries deepen their reliance on such deterrence in 2023. “We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction program, reported AP.
In a separate report, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91.4 billion on their arsenals in 2023—equivalent to $2,898 per second, according to the same AP report. The group said that figures show a $10.7 billion increase in global spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared to 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase. The U.S. share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.
