SIPRI's 2026 yearbook states that all nine nuclear-armed states modernized arsenals in 2025 while the worldwide total declined slightly to nearly 12,200 warheads. China increased its stockpile to 620 warheads and expanded land-based silos to 775. Finland and Sweden joined NATO nuclear planning after 2022.
“SIPRI: With peace elusive, nuclear weapons make a comeback”
Read at Deutsche Welle →No center sources covered this
“China adds warheads as nuclear powers ‘walk away’ from disarmament: SIPRI”
Read at South China Morning Post →The report shows modernization across all nuclear states despite a marginal decline, driven by responses to Russia's 2022 invasion and NATO expansion, entrenching escalation over diplomacy.
“Militarized responses and collective failure of great-power politics”
Authoritarian regimes, especially China, are accelerating expansion with stockpile growth to 620 warheads and more silos than Russia or the US, validating the need for continued allied modernization.
“Deterrence against peer competitors and rejection of unilateral restraint”
Nation-states divert resources into weapons of mass destruction, placing existential control in elite hands while NATO enlargement further entrenches state coercion over individual liberty.
“Concentrated state authority and lack of consent by non-combatants”
All views accept SIPRI's modernization narrative without noting the net decline, smaller scale relative to Cold War levels, or verification limitations in closed programs.
“Overlooked historical baselines, verification gaps, and potential stabilizing effects of deterrence since 1945”
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