Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Eighty years after nuclear weapons were first detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has entered a new, more dangerous, contested, and complex era—a Third Nuclear Age. Rapid technological changes in weapons systems and across the nuclear information space are reshaping the dynamics of deterrence, escalation, and proliferation. These shifts are unfolding alongside a transition towards a more fragmented and multipolar international system, the potential erosion of the liberal international order, and the breakdown of arms control regimes and shared norms of nuclear responsibility and restraint. At the same time, growing interest in nuclear technologies to meet climate, development, and scientific demands, combined with divergent visions of the nuclear future across societies, signals that nuclear politics have again become a defining feature of the Anthropocene. After what seemed like a period of relative peace and stability following the Cold War, nuclear weapons have returned to the centre of global politics and remain the only way that humanity could destroy modern civilization within hours. The central question is whether we, as a species, are prepared to confront the challenges of this new era.</jats:p>