While the risk of a nuclear war has greatly decreased since the end of the cold war, it is important to remember that the United States and Russia both have thousands of nuclear bombs, and that various other countries have anywhere from 10 to a few hundred nuclear weapons. This is a lot less than the cold war, as the United States and Russia don't want to spend so much money on nuclear weapons that they'll never use, and hording nuclear weapons would make either country look agressive and evil. However, there is still a risk that nuclear weapons could be used at some point, as India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and a lot of tensions between one another, and North Korea is making its own nuclear bombs. There is also a risk that terrorists could make their own nuclear weapons, but this is unlikely because nuclear weapons are incredibly expensive. However, despite the minor tensions that still exist today, I think that the US and Russia still have way more nuclear weapons than they need to have, as having so many nuclear bombs makes it easy to lose one, and no country needs to have so much destructive capability.
Do you think that it is likely that nuclear weapons could be used at some point in the next few decades? Do the United States and Russia have too many nuclear weapons?
I do not think that nuclear weapons will be used within the next few decades, although countries may choose to make more. I think it's fair to say that any country that decides to use nuclear bombs will face very harsh consequences from other countries, so it is more of an insurance to that they can respond to an attack.
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