Back from the Brink: Redefining Realism Before It’s Too Late
The recent strikes by Israel, a nuclear-armed state against Iran, a non-nuclear adversary, lay bare an urgent truth: global power is no longer grounded in diplomacy or accountability, but in brute nuclear force. This moment reveals the perverse logic at the heart of deterrence—a doctrine that does not prevent conflict but instead incentivizes aggression by those who wield the bomb. Nuclear weapons don’t bring stability; they destabilize by design, shifting security from shared principles to sheer possession.
This should not be a debate about whether Iran should acquire a nuclear weapon. No country, including Israel, the United States, Russia nor China should have nuclear weapons
Back from the Brink rejects this dangerous trajectory. Through initiatives like H.Res.317, a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) we champion a realistic alternative to fatalism and nuclear catastrophe rooted in diplomacy, de-escalation, and disarmament.
In a world teetering on the edge, disarmament is not naïve—it is the only sane path forward. Realism demands we dismantle the nuclear machinery of annihilation, not double down on it. We are at an inflection point: either we end the deterrence delusion or brace for catastrophe.
This weekend’s No Kings demonstrations across the United States—rising in defiance of authoritarian excess, militarized crackdowns in California, and the executive branch’s open flirtation with fascism—underscore that the crisis of deterrence is inseparable from the crisis of democracy itself. Find an event near you.
History will record our response. Let it mark this as the moment we chose courage, not complacency. Our lives, our communities, our planet, our future depend on it.
