00:15The global nuclear landscape is entering a new, dangerous phase.
00:20The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's 2025 yearbook
00:25reveals that as of January 2025, the world's nine nuclear-armed states held an estimated 12,241 warheads.
00:36Of these, nearly 9,614 were in military stockpiles, with 3,912 deployed on missiles, aircraft, or other delivery systems,
00:48and about 2,100 on high alert, mostly in the United States and Russia.
00:54While overall inventories have declined since the Cold War, this trend is slowing.
01:01Modernization programs in the U.S., Russia, and China are accelerating, raising the specter of renewed strategic instability.
01:10The United States and Russia together hold nearly 90 percent of global nuclear weapons, with sweeping upgrades underway.
01:18The U.S. is replacing Minuteman III ICBMs with Sentinel missiles, building Columbia-class submarines, and deploying B-21 Raider
01:29bombers.
01:30Russia is fielding Sarmat heavy ICBMs and avant-garde hypersonic glide vehicles.
01:37Meanwhile, China's arsenal grew the fastest, jumping from 500 warheads in 2024 to 600 in 2025.
01:47The buildup includes over 350 new ICBM silos, upgraded Type 094 submarines with JL-3 missiles, and the development of
01:58new strategic bombers.
02:00Experts warn China could surpass 1,000 warheads by 2030, shifting from a minimum deterrent posture to a more survivable
02:10retaliatory force.
02:12This expansion comes amid rising regional tensions, particularly between the United States and Iran.
02:19While Iran remains a non-nuclear state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, accelerated uranium enrichment, limited IAEA access, and
02:30U.S.-Iran confrontations in 2025 to 2026 have increased the risk of nuclear escalation.
02:38The CIPRI report highlights the erosion of key arms control agreements.
02:44The expiration of New START in February 2026 and failed revival of the JCPOA have weakened global safeguards.
02:53Combined with modern multi-domain threats, cyber, space, and hypersonic weapons, this has created a fragile, unstable nuclear environment.
03:04The Middle East remains a flashpoint.
03:07U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities in 2025 temporarily disrupted Iran's nuclear ambitions, but its program could rebound
03:18quickly.
03:18With undeclared arsenals in Israel and rapid expansion in China, CIPRI warns the world faces a new and dangerous nuclear
03:28arms race, one that could spiral out of control if diplomacy fails.
03:33The question now looms large.
03:36Are global powers prepared to manage a rapidly modernizing, increasingly unpredictable nuclear world, or are we standing on the edge
03:45of a new nuclear confrontation?
03:47The question now?
04:03The question now?
04:06The question now?
04:08The question now?
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