After first suffering a seeming “brain snap” to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) some years back; at long last Australia has been promised a fleet of eight SSNs by the Biden administration under the newly minted and awkwardly named AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) alliance against China.

Time is ripe for initiatives to reduce global military spending. Global military expenditures are at record levels. The current pandemic is a stark reminder of the financial resources needed to prevent and meet future crises.

On the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for the first time, a global treaty is in force outlawing the bomb. Last month, I completed and dispatched to the publisher an edited book on the nuclear ban treaty (or the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as it’s officially called) with contributions from many familiar people in academia, think tanks, foreign ministries and civil society.

With the advance of algorithmic technologies, the international legal regulation of fully autonomous weapons systems has risen up the international security and humanitarian agenda in recent years. But calls for the outright prohibition of such systems seem both premature and destined to fail.

After the summit talks in Geneva on 17 June, Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden held separate and contrasting press conferences. Biden made it clear his staff had given him a prepared list of reporters on whom to call, strongly suggesting questions and answers drafted in advance to minimise gaffes by a president whose thoughts can wander sometimes.

The risk of nuclear war is real. A ‘no first use’ policy of nuclear weapons would actually bolster US security – and underpin its global leadership role.