Led by Russia and the United States, the world reduced the nuclear stockpile from 60,000 weapons to about 16,000 held by nine nations. The total still poses a grave global threat. Any nuclear attack or accident would kill many, devastating an entire region, which in turn would revive demands for abolition, explains Bennett Ramberg, author and a former policy analyst in the U.S. Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs during the George H.W. administration. No country has used the bomb since World War II, he explains, and “A presumption emerged that a nuclear-use taboo overwhelms any inclination toward nuclear use.” The potential for nuclear catastrophe runs high in an era of terrorism and chaos emerging out of failed states, but prevention is possible, too. Global agreement is required, notes Ramberg, and he points to the 1946 Baruch Plan as a foundation. The plan calls for an international authority to manage atomic energy and an end to manufacturing nuclear weapons.

President Barack Obama and other members of his administration have long labeled the Islamic State as a “cancer” that must be eliminated. Destroying ideological fervor is not easy, and extending the president’s analogy can offer a useful way for determining strategies for defeating the Islamic State extremists once and for all, explains Bennett Ramberg, who served in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs in the U.S. Department of State during the George H.W. Bush administration. Ramberg lists the promises and limits of strategies while comparing invasive surgery to sending ground troops to the region, radiation to airstrikes, and stem-cell treatment to promotion of economic development and good governance. Modern treatments for cancer require multi-pronged approaches, and so does the battle against extremism, with Ramberg concluding that each element is critical for success.