For the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and with the increasing

threat of nuclear war, early this month the First Committee on International Peace and

Security of the United Nations passed a resolution to study the impacts of nuclear war

for the first time in 35 years. In support of the study were 144 countries, France, the

Russian Federation and the United Kingdom voted no. Thirty countries abstained,

including the United States.