By that time, the superpowers had accumulated mountains of weapons; military build-up plans called for "space combat stations," "nuclear-powered lasers," "kinetic space weapons" and similar inventions. Thank God, in the end none of them were built. What is more, negotiations between the U.S.S.R. and the United States opened the way to ending the nuclear arms race. We reached agreement with one of the most hawkish U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan, to radically reduce the arsenals.

Today, those achievements are in jeopardy. More and more, defense planning looks like preparation for real war amid continued militarization of politics, thinking and rhetoric.

The National Security Strategy and Nuclear Posture Review published by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration in February orients U.S. foreign policy toward "political, economic, and military competitions around the world" and calls for the development of new, "more flexible" nuclear weapons. This means lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons even further.