Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins On The U.S., China, And The Future Of Nuclear Weapons

WAMU 88.5 | By Rupert Allman

Published November 28, 2021 at 7:27 PM EST

A deactivated Titan II nuclear ICMB is seen in a silo at the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Arizona.

As far as state secrets go, the size of America’s nuclear arsenal was a big one.

Things changed in 2010 when for the first time, the Obama administration released the entire history of our nuclear weapons stockpile.It makes for an interesting read. And perhaps a reassuring one.

Overall, this country’s stash of nukes has dropped by more than eighty percent since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. That reduction was driven in large part by arms deals struck between the U.S. and what was the Soviet Union.

But the threats we face now are very different.China’s nuclear force is expected to quadruple in the next ten years.And the United States says the threat of biological warfare is growing.

That warning was made earlier this month – and came from the country’s arms control chief,Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, at a meeting in Geneva.

We ask her about those threats and the state of the U.S.’ nuclear arsenal.