Why is nuclear war still a threat?
The risk of nuclear war is much lower, now that the Cold War is over. But there’s still seven or eight countries with nuclear weapons: the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel. There’s also countries which are working towards nuclear capability: Iran, North Korea, Libya. [http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq7.html] In particular, the US and Russia have very large nuclear arsenals: as of March 2002, they each have more than 6,000 nuclear warheads, down from more than 25,000 each at the height of the Cold War. Finally, there’s the possibility that a sub-state group such as al-Qaeda might acquire nuclear weapons.
