Forty five years ago today, President John F. Kennedy appeared on television to announce to the world what historically became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is universally acknowledged that this was the closest the world has come to a nuclear world war and the potential of global annihilation. After narrowly averting nuclear war, Kennedy and Soviet Premiere Khrushchev cooperated in creating the nuclear test ban treaty banning tests in the atmosphere, space, and underwater. Subsequent arms control treaties with the Soviets were pursued by various Democratic and Republican presidents. Although nuclear war was a real possibility more than once before the cold war ended, a combination of awareness of the mutually destructive impact of nuclear war, ongoing diplomatic efforts and to some extent, luck, succeeded in averting nuclear war. In the aftermath of the cold war, it appeared initially the world was considerably safer from the potential of world-wide nuclear catastrophe. However, concerns about nuclear proliferation and confrontation related to various nations, as well as nuclear terrorism, have increased dramatically in recent years. Even the United States and Russia, who still have the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, and who had operated more like allies in the wake of the cold war, are again becoming more confrontational, although various factors and common interests seem likely to keep a new cold war from emerging. However, the current combination of nuclear issues related to other nations, as well as potential nuclear terrorism, in a variety of unstable and seemingly intractable contexts, which appear more complex and more difficult to contain than the issues of two nuclear superpowers during the cold war, could potentially create regional and global nuclear conflict that could threaten life on earth. Do you believe that the likelihood of global nuclear conflict has been reduced since the Cuban Missile Crisis 45 years ago nearly led to global nuclear annihilation, even though confrontation related to the potential of growing nuclear proliferation, regional nuclear powers and potential nuclear terrorism appear to be increasingly complex threats today?