Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 22nd 2025
Posted: 22nd December 2025
December 22, 2025
US President Donald Trump meets Kim Jong-un at the Korean Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019.
Four US presidents failed to stop North Korea’s nuclear buildup. Trump still has a shot
The only policy that has ever worked to restrain and reverse North Korea’s nuclear program has been engagement and diplomacy, not pressure and threats, writes nuclear policy analyst Joe Cirincione. “But Democrats and Republicans alike have long ignored this lesson.” Read more.
Lessons from the UN’s first resolution on AI in nuclear command and control
In November, the General Assembly’s First Committee adopted a resolution that looks at the risks of integrating AI into nuclear weapons systems, reports Alice Saltini. The resolution vote, which may be best read as an initial test case was an early attempt to translate a fast-moving technical debate into diplomatic language. Read more.
China’s strategic missile defense exacerbates arms race instability
China’s first publicly acknowledged missile defense system, designed to defeat long-range ballistic missiles, is raising questions about Chinese intentions and threatening to intensify the US-China arms race, writes Alex Richter. Read more.
Threatening NCAR, Trump administration seeks to extinguish a beacon of climate science
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, writes Benjamin Santer. “Even if you’re not a scientist, this should be on your radar. You need to understand what it means.” Read more.
Thanksgiving advice: How to deal with climate change-denying Uncle Pete
We’ve all got that unpleasant relative—call him Uncle Pete—who spoils the family dinner by repeating false claims he found on the internet or heard on talk radio. Here’s some sage advice on how to respond, from an actual climate scientist, Richard Somerville—who won an award for climate communication. This archival magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time.
The recent past and foreseeable future of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: a conversation
To introduce the Bulletin’s 80th anniversary magazine issue, Editor-in-Chief John Mecklin interviews former Executive Director Kennette Benedict. This archival magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time.
BULLETIN VIDEO
Watch now: The Bulletin’s 2025 annual event, Conversations Before Midnight
On November 12, 2025, the Bulletin held its annual event, Conversations Before Midnight, an evening focused on the most urgent issues shaping our shared future. You can listen to AI experts Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Jaan Tallinn in conversations with Bulletin leaders Alexandra Bell and John Mecklin. And remarks from Rieser Award winner Collin Van Son, on our YouTube channel. Watch here.
IN THE NEWS
Who sets the Doomsday Clock?
This Popular Mechanics feature article by Emily Strasser explores the increasingly urgent debate about humanity’s capacity to end itself by talking to various members of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board which sets the Doomsday Clock. Read more.
IN THE NEWS
Bulletin articles make The IP List 2025
The IP List 2025 is a non-profit initiative that surfaces journalistic intellectual property for optioning and adaptation in the film and television industry. Two Bulletin articles—one about the American survivors of the Trinity Test and another about The Nuclear Emergency Support Team—made the list this year. Read more.
BULLETIN EVENT
Art + Science: Harnessing the Power of Art and Storytelling
How do we harness the power of art in drawing attention to the most pressing global threats? How do we support artists in the most trying of times to tell the stories that bring us all together?
To explore these questions, join us for a virtual event featuring David Harrington, founder of the Kronos Quartet, whose music has long confronted the urgencies of social change; science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, whose work imagines social transformation through engaging, creative prose; Lovely Umayam, a nuclear policy expert rooted in activism and art; and Alexandra Bell, who is bringing the Bulletin’s long-standing devotion of arts-driven global engagement into a new era. Register.
Art has been a part of the Bulletin for decades. In the lead up to the event we’ll be sharing some of our favorite Bulletin cartoons and drawings from years past.
A cartoon from a May 1992 Bulletin magazine issue.
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