Americans and others have a fundamental misunderstanding about the world treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons[1]. This is the treaty under which most nations that do not presently have nuclear weapons have agreed not to develop them. Yes, some nations have refused to ratify this treaty and have developed weapons. However, the biggest offenders against this treaty are the nations who have nuclear weapons and haven't made a single step towards the disarmament they agreed to.

It was not the case that most of the world agreed that some nations could have nuclear weapons while they couldn't. The U.S., Russia, France, Britain, etc., in ratifying this treaty, agreed to disarm. The time-frame for disarmament was not specified unfortunately, but the core of the treaty is that nations without nuclear weapons agree not to develop them if nations with nuclear weapons agree to disarm. Zero movement has been made by the U.S. or other nuclear nations towards this goal.

In the face of aggression from states like Russia and, yes, the U.S.A., there is increasing pressure to view the non-proliferation treaty as broken and no longer binding. This would be a huge loss for the world, and I urge citizens of laggard nuclear powers to put some pressure on their governments to live up to their end of the deal before the deal dies. A world in which non-proliferation is dead and nations of the world are all scrambling for nuclear weapons is not a world in which you will be more secure.

Even if we succeed in managing the impact of AI, nuclear weapons are something the world would be better off without. It's time to demand better from world leaders.

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferatio...