Peter Kuznik, director of the Institute for Nuclear Research at American University, believes the world may be on the verge of a sharp increase in the number of nuclear-armed states. In his view, this trajectory would amount to «anarchy» in the security sphere and make the likelihood of a global conflict extremely high.

He points out that the ambition to acquire a national nuclear arsenal is now openly discussed in South Korea, Japan, Germany and Poland. At the same time, Kuznik argues that if Iran moves ahead with the development of such weapons, this would almost automatically open the door to their emergence in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

The expert stresses that the world is already dangerously close to a nuclear war and that, if what he calls «nuclear anarchy» sets in — with all these countries embarking on their own nuclear programs — the probability of a nuclear conflict would, in his assessment, become nearly obvious. He voiced these concerns in an interview with the information service Vesti.

Earlier, Western media reported that US intelligence services had obtained information about China working on a new generation of nuclear weapons. Analysts believe this refers to missiles capable of carrying several compact nuclear warheads, as well as low-yield tactical nuclear munitions that, up to now, Beijing has not had at its disposal.

It was also previously noted that US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Christopher Ya stated Washington’s intention to return to nuclear testing on a «reciprocal basis» with Russia and China.