The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was introduced as international law on Jan. 22, 2021, and has since been ratified by 70 countries. “It was our belief that although people knew that nuclear war would be very bad, they didn’t really begin to appreciate how horrible it would be,” he said. “Nobody really wanted to think about nuclear weapons after the Cold War ended, but the danger hadn’t gone away. This is not an issue that should be seen as a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” Helfand said. “We are all going to suffer terribly if there’s a nuclear war, and if we don’t get rid of nuclear weapons, there’s going to be one.”