A House of Dynamite<\/a>,\u201d brought me back to my own helicopter ride to an underground bunker as Secretary of Energy. Fortunately, my ride was a test-run for ensuring continuity of government in the event of a nuclear attack \u2014 but as the film underscores, one wrong move could take us beyond test runs and bring civilization crashing down.<\/p>\n\n\tBigelow\u2019s plot centers on what happens when a single, unattributed nuclear-armed missile is launched at the United States, setting off a race against the clock to determine who is responsible and how to respond.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA House of Dynamite\u201d debuts on Netflix amid a well-timed cultural renaissance happening on nuclear weapons right now, kicked off by Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and ahead of James Cameron\u2019s forthcoming adaptation of \u201cGhosts of Hiroshima.\u201d It\u2019s extending beyond the silver screen, too, with Season 3 of Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d premiering last week, and the Season 2 finale of Amazon\u2019s record-breaking series \u201cFallout\u201d dropping on Feb. 5, the day before New START, the last remaining treaty limiting the size of nuclear stockpiles, expires.<\/p>\n
\n\tThese powerful films and shows come at a time when the number of nuclear weapons in the world is expected to tick up for the first time in more than four decades, and they have an important role to play in reminding people that we live in the real world with 12,000 nuclear weapons \u2014 under the constant threat of global catastrophe. Today, nuclear risks are escalating across nearly every measure, and many experts agree that the risk a nuclear weapon will be used \u2014 on purpose or by accident \u2014 is at the highest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.<\/p>\n
\n\tNuclear weapons are in the zeitgeist, but can culture stir public demand for real-world progress once again?<\/p>\n
\n\tThere\u2019s emerging evidence that Bigelow\u2019s jarring thriller will shift audience beliefs about nuclear risks. My organization commissioned research centered around the film\u2019s two-minute trailer, with 1,000 Americans watching the trailer and 1,000 watching another piece of content. Those who watched the trailer were less likely to say that nuclear weapons keep us safe, more likely to desire a world without nuclear weapons, more likely to believe the United States should work to reduce nuclear weapons globally, and more likely to say reducing nuclear weapon risks was important to them personally.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d is a popular maxim for a reason: There is ample evidence that culture lays the groundwork for policy progress by changing public beliefs and societal narratives \u2014 even on nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\n\tTake \u201cThe Day After,\u201d the 1983 TV movie seen by 100 million Americans that depicted the aftermath of a fictional nuclear attack on Kansas and Missouri and helped Americans rethink their support for an arms race with the Soviet Union. It also helped change Ronald Reagan\u2019s mind about whether a nuclear war was winnable and helped make arms control treaties possible over the decades that followed. Thanks to those treaties, including the New START treaty between the United States and Russia, the world now has \u201conly\u201d 12,000 nuclear weapons instead of 70,000.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor many who grew up after the Cold War and without the constant fear of nuclear war, these threats may seem distant and unrealistic. For instance, walking out of \u201cA House of Dynamite,\u201d my Gen-Z colleague heard her peer say, \u201cThat would never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWrong. As someone who had a front-row seat to nuclear weapons realities, let me underscore: We live in a nuclear system that was not built for a messy, complicated world \u2014 it\u2019s a system that hinges on perfect performances from rational humans and machines every day. What is shown in the film could happen, and it \u2014 or something worse \u2014 will happen if we stay on the current path.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo, how do we move off that path?<\/p>\n
\n\tA solid first step would be for President Trump to accept a recent offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to adhere for an additional year to the numerical limits of New START, which Trump himself said \u201csounds like a good idea.\u201d Then, he should use the time to begin negotiations on a follow-on agreement that could decrease the size and address the composition of the nuclear stockpile. Handshakes are a first step, but only a new agreement can verify compliance and reestablish the regular channels of communications that are critical to prevent a civilization-ending miscalculation.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd there\u2019s more. For example, nuclear weapons states should follow the lead of the United States in taking a fresh look at the safety of their own stockpiles and command and control systems, especially in this age of rapidly emerging technology, such as AI and cyberthreats. No one wants to see a blunder lead to a nuclear catastrophe on the long journey towards a more secure world \u2014 without nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\n\tBigelow has said that she hopes the film will start a conversation that can lead to fewer nuclear weapons. For the future of humanity, let\u2019s hope that the movie wakes people up to the nuclear nightmare festering in our house of dynamite and gets leaders back to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ernest J. Moniz served as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Energy and is Co-Chair and CEO of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[81548,88],"class_list":["post-248367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-a-house-of-dynamite","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}