Photograph; The "Baker" explosion, part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear weapon test by the United States military at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, on 25 July 1946. The water released by the explosion was highly radioactive and contaminated many of the ships that were set up near it. Those which could not be decontaminated were sunk a number of miles off the coast of San Francisco. Photo credit: U.S. Dept. of Defense, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Introduction
This page explores the development of, and politics surrounding, warfare.
Nuclear and Chemical Warfare
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). United Nations. This agency tracks and reports on the long-term effects of radiation exposure from nuclear atmospheric testing. See also National Atmospheric Deposition Program. See also Baby Tooth Survey (Wikipedia page). A study conducted by the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information, Saint Louis University, Washington University School of Dental Medicine from 1958 - 1970.
Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies (website)
Gar Alperovitz, Did America Have To Drop the Bomb? Not to End the War, But Truman Wanted To Intimidate Russia. Washington Post, Aug 4, 1985. See a moderated position: Alex Wellerstein, The Decision to Use the Bomb: A Consensus View? Restricted Data | The Nuclear Secrecy Blog, Mar 8, 2013.
Patrick Cockburn, Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah 'Worse than Hiroshima': The Shocking Rates of Infant Mortality and Cancer in Iraqi City Raise New Questions About Battle. UK Independent, Jul 23, 2010.
William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, ‘Smaller’ Leaves Some Uneasy. NY Times, Jan 11, 2016.
William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, Race for Latest Class of Nuclear Arms Threatens to Revive Cold War. NY Times, Apr 16, 2016.
Peter Van Buren, Don't Whitewash the Hiroshima Bombing. The American Conservative, Aug 6, 2017.
Conrad Black, Trump’s North Korean Policy Is Succeeding. The American Conservative, Jun 13, 2018. A remarkably flattering piece on Trump, and a completely opposite view, also tempered by David French, Meet the New Hubris, Same as the Old Hubris. National Review, Jun 13, 2018. See also Doug Bandow, The Saudi-UAE Alliance is the Most Dangerous Force in the Middle East Today. The American Conservative, Jun 13, 2018.
Nick Miroff, U.S. Border Officers Make Largest-Ever Fentanyl Bust: 254 Pounds Hidden Under Cucumbers. Washington Post, Jan 31, 2019. Very important from a chemical, biological warfare perspective because fentanyl can be powdered and used in air because it can be absorbed through skin; it can easily become a chemical warfare weapon.
Geoff Brumfiel, The U.S. And Russia Are Stocking Up On Missiles And Nukes For A Different Kind Of War. NPR, Feb 1, 2019. Smaller nuclear weapons to be used on battlefields.
Kyle Swenson, The U.S. Put Nuclear Waste Under a Dome on a Pacific Island. Now It’s Cracking Open. Washington Post, May 20, 2019.
Morgan Knibbe, Atomic Veterans Were Silenced for 50 Years. Now, They’re Talking. The Atlantic, May 27, 2019. Veterans who were eyewitnesses to an atomic blast test; radiation-caused cancer and government denial of culpability.
David Albert Jones, Murder in the Cathedral: The Face of Christ in the Victims of Nagasaki. University of Notre Dame, Oct 20, 2020. A Catholic appraisal.
Peter Zeihan, South Korea: Keeping Nukes on the Table. Zeihan on Geopolitics, Jan 20, 2023. Zeihan argues that countries that cannot win conventional wars will build nuclear weapons. He argues this is the result of the withdrawal of the US Navy from the seas, making the seas less safe for commerce.
Mehdi Hasan, “Worst Foreign Policy Deal in My Lifetime”: Is Biden Going to Risk American Lives for Saudi Arabia? The Mehdi Hasan Show | MSNBC, Oct 5, 2023. One question is allowing Saudi Arabia permission to enrich uranium on their own soil and on their own terms, which could easily become nuclear weapons in an arms race with Iran.
Stephen Losey, US to Build New Nuclear Gravity Bomb. US Defense News, Oct 27, 2023.
Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario. Dutton Publishers | Amazon page, Mar 26, 2024.
“Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.”
Peter Zeihan, Going Nuclear + Live Q&A Announcement. Zeihan on Geopolitics, Mar 27, 2025. The nuclear proliferation likely to occur after the U.S. reneged on its agreement with Ukraine.
Ben Norton, US Official Says Israel May Use Nuclear Weapons Against Iran. Geopolitical Economy Report, Mar 21, 2026.
Jess Cockerill, This Infamous Radioactive 'Tomb' Is Leaking, And Experts Are Worried. Science Alert, Mar 20, 2026.
“A gaping hole was left on a small island in the Pacific Ocean when the United States military released an 18-kiloton nuclear blast in 1958, known as the 'Cactus' test.
After the blast took place on the Marshall Island's Runit Island, the military filled it in with contaminated soil and debris, creating a 'tomb' of nuclear waste known now as the Runit Dome.
Almost 50 years after the dome's construction, experts are concerned that cracks in the concrete-capped radioactive landfill indicate just how vulnerable the site is to rising seas encroaching upon the narrow island's shores.
The 115-meter (377 feet)-wide dome, built between 1977 and 1980 as part of military cleanup efforts, rests above more than 120,000 tons of material that were contaminated by US nuclear testing across Enewetak Atoll, including lethal quantities of plutonium.”
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Nuclear Blackmail: Israel's Diabolical Plan to Coerce the US. Breaking Points, Jun 23, 2026.
Peter Zeihan, The U.S. and Ukraine Make a Drone Deal. Zeihan on Geopolitics, Jul 10, 2026. This is the first such agreement, concerning conventional drone warfare.
Annie Jacobsen, Biological War. Dutton Publishers | Amazon page, Jul 28, 2026.
“A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. In this essential new book, based on dozens of new interviews with experts with high-level political, governmental, medical, and military responsibility, Annie Jacobsen examines this very scenario. It would be only a matter of days from such a global infection before the infrastructure built to handle this gravest of situations would be in a battle for human existence. The fallout: mass death, total societal breakdown, widespread insurrection, anarchy, and a plague-ravaged wasteland that no longer resembles modern civilization. In other words: dystopia.”
See interview with Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball, Secret Gov Plot to Save Themselves In Societal Collapse. Breaking Points, Jul 21, 2026. Biological weapons have a low barrier to entry, especially with AI.
The Church and International Relations: Topics:
