Why the Nuclear Taboo Is Stronger Than Ever

Fears of proliferation and the crumbling of an earlier nuclear order could actually be accelerating international norm-building.

Crows fly around the top of the Atomic Bomb Dome on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack in the city of Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 5. August 20, 2025, 12:14 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Eighty years ago in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more than 200,000 people were killed in ways that nearly defy imagination: incinerated, burned alive, boiled in rivers, or slowly consumed by radiation sickness. Over the past decades, the international community has attempted to establish safeguards against nuclear proliferation and the use of nuclear weapons, a mission

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