This July marked the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test, the first ever nuclear detonation. To mark this occasion, I joined Nobel Laureates, nuclear experts, and activists at the Nobel Laureate Assembly held at the University of Chicago to deliberate current and future nuclear challenges and signed on to the Assembly’s Declaration for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

At APLN, this month, we continued our advancement toward this larger cause through our projects and publications. We published a new report by Fang Liu, Elaine Natalie and myself as part of our Asia Dialogue on China-US Relations. The report analyses how China, India, and Indonesia conceptualise multipolarity and how this diversity results in challenges and opportunities for policymakers. And we welcomed three next-generation researchers to support our work on risk reduction, crisis prevention and crisis management in the Asia-Pacific.

In this month’s APLN Korea Times column, Rubina Waseem highlighted the growing intersection between climate change and nuclear security risks against the backdrop of the intensifying climate crises, and urged stronger regional cooperation and legal frameworks. Meanwhile, Tanvi Kulkarni argued for creative approaches such as art and literature to rethink nuclear deterrence and advance disarmament.

On related themes, I reflected on the unintended consequences of counter-proliferation efforts against Iran, calling for renewed diplomacy to address underlying security concerns. Frank O’Donnell offered insight into China-India border tensions and discussed how China’s missile-centric doctrine and infrastructure investments may offset India’s numerical air force advantage. Finally, Joel Petersson Ivre examined South Korea’s contradictory public opinion on nuclear issues, suggesting that greater visibility of hibakusha voices could shift societal attitudes toward nuclear weapons.

We thank you for your continued interest and welcome any feedback you may have as we look forward to ongoing engagement.

Manpreet Sethi, Fang Liu, and Elaine Natalie argue that the global order is becoming irreversibly multipolar. No single power, neither the United States nor China, is able or willing to dominate every region, especially in the Asia-Pacific. The authors explain and compare the competing visions of multipolarity as articulated by China, India, and Indonesia to identify the challenges and opportunities for policymakers in the United States, China and in the region.

This report is published under APLN’s Asia Dialogue on China-US Relations, a project supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

As record-breaking heatwaves sweep across many regions and the impacts of climate change feel more urgent than ever, Rubina Waseem argues that climate change is not merely an environmental issue but a growing global security threat, particularly as nuclear facilities are increasingly exposed to extreme weather conditions. Recent events such as typhoons in Southeast Asia and heatwaves in Europe demonstrate how climate stress and geopolitical tensions can converge to undermine nuclear safety. She calls on states to integrate climate risk assessments into their nuclear safety planning, to strengthen regional cooperation, and to reinforce international legal frameworks.

Tanvi Kulkarni argues that the complex security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific is indispensable to our understanding of how nuclear deterrence operates in the contemporary world. She suggests embracing creative approaches such as art and literature to move beyond traditional deterrence paradigms and to advance disarmament.

In this article for the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, Manpreet Sethi outlines the negative consequences of counter-proliferation efforts and proposes ways to mitigate them. While recent U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure may have temporarily set back its programme, they are unlikely to eliminate Iran’s nuclear ambitions and may instead strengthen its resolve. To prevent this, she calls for a return to diplomacy that addresses Iran’s security concerns, including sanctions relief and assurances against attack, as a path toward a more sustainable non-proliferation outcome.

In a video essay for The Wall Street Journal alongside Sushant Singh and Shanshan Mei, Frank O’Donnell offers analysis on the strategic dynamics along the China-India border. He observes that although India maintains a quantitative advantage in air force assets and possesses more air bases closer to the front line, China adopts what is arguably the most missile-centric concept of warfare in the world. This missile emphasis, combined with substantial investments in transport and airpower infrastructure across the Himalayan corridor, may offset India’s conventional air superiority.

Joel Petersson-Ivre writes for The Korea Times and examines the paradox in South Korea’s public opinion, where support for nuclear weapons is high while opposition to nuclear power remains strong. He suggests that the voices of Korean hibakusha and their descendants, if more widely heard, could help reshape public attitudes by underscoring the human cost of nuclear weapons. 

We are pleased to welcome three next-generation researchers — Connor Clery, Flynn Acworth, and Yuuki Tokuda — who will support our work on risk reduction, crisis prevention and crisis management in the Asia-Pacific. They will conduct research as part of a cross-national, cross-regional project that assesses security linkages between the Asia-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic regions. The project is conducted in cooperation with the European Leadership Network, the University of Melbourne, Hitotsubashi University, and Victoria University of Wellington.