Inside Story

Is a nuclear conflict possible?

A report finds nuclear powers have increased spending on a scale never seen before.

A report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows spending on such munitions has ballooned.

Nearly $100bn has been spent by the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations in a single year.

Nuclear warhead stockpiles have reduced since the peak of the Cold War.

But soaring new expenditures beg the questions of why these countries are willing to spend such incredible sums of money on atomic weapons – and whether they are making the world any safer.

Presenter: Neave Barker

Guests:

Nikolai Sokov – Senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Gary Samore – Professor at Brandeis University

Victor Gao – Vice president of the Center for China and Globalization