Nuclear security

Introduction: Practical nuclear questions for the candidates in an unusual presidential election

But the unusual aspects of this presidential race have not changed a fundamental reality of all American elections since the dawn of the nuclear age: Whether Republican nominee Donald Trump or Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton takes office in January, he or she will immediately assume control of a nuclear arsenal that could exterminate humanity in short order. 
The 2016 campaign has touched on international security matters now and again, sometimes even mentioning nuclear issues, but the discussion has most often been pursued in terms so broad as to be almost cartoonish. In his or her own way, each candidate has made it clear that he or she thinks the other unqualified to be president and ergo dangerous. 
But the nuts and bolts of how a president might effectively manage—and perhaps reduce—the complex nuclear threats facing today’s world have been largely missing in action to this point in the campaign.