The 9 World Leaders Who Have the Power to Destroy Life on Earth

France is the only nuclear armed country in western continental Europe. One of the world’s older nuclear powers, France conducted its first successful nuclear weapons test in 1960. The country’s 290 nuclear weapons are deployable both by submarine and air-launched cruise missiles.

France’s nuclear program began in World War II but was put on hold during the German occupation. The program resumed upon liberation, and French atomic weapons were operational and ready for military use by 1964.

The nuclear arsenal in France is now under the control of President Emmanuel Macron, who has been in office since June 2017. He recently came under fire when he said France would not use nuclear weapons in response to a Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine.

The Chinese nuclear weapons program began in the 1950s in collaboration with the Soviet Union – with the Chinese supplying uranium ore to the Soviets in exchange for assistance in nuclear technology. Though the Soviets eventually backed out of the deal, China conducted its first successful nuclear test in 1964.

China has been ruled by President Xi Jinping since 2012. In recent years, Xi has installed loyalists in high positions and done away with measures that constrain his power. With his authoritarian regime governing over 1.4 billion people, and a nuclear arsenal of an estimated 350 warheads, Xi may now be the single most powerful person in the world.

Since 2018, China has taken considerable steps to expand its nuclear capabilities and build out its arsenal. Like the U.S., China now has a nuclear triad – warheads that can be deployed from submarines, aircraft, and land with road mobile ICBMs. Unlike the Russian nuclear threat, which is countered by NATO allies, the U.S. has no comparable treaty in the Indo-Pacific region to counter the rising Chinese threat.

The U.S. became the first country to develop nuclear weapons in 1945, and to this day remains the only country in history to use nuclear weapons in war, after dropping one on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later.

In the post war era, distrust and resentment between the U.S. and Soviet Union devolved into a decades-long Cold War – and the most significant arms race in world history. Nuclear escalation between the two superpowers resulted in the U.S. stockpiling over 31,000 nuclear weapons and the Soviets arming themselves with over 40,000. The two countries came close to plunging the world into nuclear war several times in the Cold War years from 1947 to 199, most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

In the post Cold War era, the U.S. has dismantled the bulk of its nuclear weapons but still has nearly 5,500 warheads in its arsenal, which can be deployed by air, sea, and land-based missiles.

Codes to launch the nuclear weapons in the U.S. inventory are at the control of President Joe Biden, and like previous presidents, Biden has conducted a Nuclear Posture Review, avoiding significant changes. While the NPR does not rule out first use of nuclear weapons, it does state that “the United States would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances.” Biden faced criticism over NPR for not reducing the arsenal or taking a different approach, while U.S. allies have welcomed the status quo in the stance.

Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other nation on Earth. There are an estimated 5,977 nuclear warheads under Russian control, or about 47% of the total 12,700 estimated nuclear weapon count globally. The Soviet Union carried out its first successful nuclear weapons test in 1949, at the outset of the Cold War, and proceeded to build an arsenal that peaked at over 40,000 warheads in 1986.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia are now at a post Cold War high, following the country’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As the conflict in Ukraine continues to rage, concerns over Russia’s potential deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield are mounting.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made direct and veiled threats about the use of nuclear weapons since the war started. Recent military setbacks in Ukraine have further caused U.S. and NATO officials to speculate that, if backed into a corner, the Kremlin may choose to use nuclear weapons. Even before the Ukrainian offensive began, relations between the U.S. and Putin, an ex-KGB agent, were deteriorating.