This is a tough-minded and at the same time hopeful book about what is by far the most serious threat ever identified to the global civilization and the human species. The first light of the Trinity nuclear explosion over the Nevv Mexico desert in 1945 heralded the dawn of a nevv age of military power and unprecedented global insecurity. During the following decades, weapons of mass destruction were built at a breathtaking pace­ each side convinced that the more it had, the safer it was-until the global arsenals were glutted with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons.