Analysts are concerned the US and Israel's war with Iran could end up fuelling nuclear proliferation, with one expert warning more weapons will only bring "more death and destruction".
Tim Wright is the Asia-Pacific Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), an organisation which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
According to the Nobel Prize website, it won "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons".
He was concerned by the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced earlier this week that France would increase its nuclear arsenal and capability for the first time in decades. France has an estimated 290 warheads, a number unchanged since 1992.
"This is a response to the diminished role, I suppose you would say, of the United States in providing for European security," Wright said.
“But nuclear weapons will never bring security not to Europe, not to any country or region of the world.”
Macron’s rhetoric, he said, would always contribute to greater global insecurity, and risked greater proliferation.
What is nuclear proliferation?
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, nuclear proliferation refers to the spread of nuclear weapons to states that do not already have them.
Proliferation peaked during the Cold War, when around 70,000 nuclear warheads existed worldwide, according to ICAN.
In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into force, aiming to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and encourage disarmament. Almost 200 countries are part of the agreement.
ICAN estimates that there are now 12,331 warheads, owned by nine countries worldwide.
In his address, Macron said the next 50 years will be an age of nuclear weapons.
Wright did not disagree, saying most trends are "very negative".
"There are nine countries with nuclear weapons today and all of them are investing heavily in the modernisation of their nuclear arsenals."
"More than $100 billion is being spent every year on these modernisation programs."
Some countries such as China, India and Pakistan were also expanding their arsenals, he said.
But he had a warning.
“These weapons are designed to destroy cities, and a single bomb is powerful enough to kill hundreds of thousands of people as we saw in Hiroshima and Nagasaki eight decades ago.
"And if we continue down this path of increased reliance on nuclear weapons, then we will see a repeat of the atrocities of 1945 and the consequences will be utterly catastrophic."
Middle East offensive a 'clear violation of international law'
US President Donald Trump has justified military action in Iran, namely Operation Epic Fury, by highlighting a need to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence “to suggest that Iran's nuclear program had been weaponised or that Iran had enriched uranium to such an extent that it could be used in a nuclear weapon," Wright said.
However, he said any concerns related to Iran's nuclear programme should've been dealt with via diplomacy.
"Indeed, in the days before the Israeli and US strikes began against Iran, there were negotiations between the United States and Iran taking place in Geneva."
These talks were being mediated by Oman.
“The Omani Foreign Minister reported that significant progress had been achieved. So clearly diplomatic avenues hadn't been exhausted.
"It's a clear violation of international law. There's no lawful justification whatsoever for the actions of the United States and Israel in this situation."
He also criticised Western leaders, many of whom, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, have either not condemned or supported military action in Iran.
"These are countries that claim to support international law... and yet they're not defending it in a consistent way. They're just doing it when it's politically convenient."
Nuclear weapon-free world 'in everyone's interest'
Wright thinks efforts to reduce to role of nuclear weapons in international relations have been somewhat misguided.
“The problem that we face now is that efforts have focused on stopping more countries from developing nuclear weapons while the existing nuclear arms states are failing to move towards eliminating their nuclear arsenals.”
While some states, such as France, may feel nuclear weapons are needed to guarantee their security, he said more weapons will only bring "more death and more destruction".
He said he believed there was some hope, as a nuclear weapon-free world is in everyone's interest.
"I think that we can achieve it."
"The vast majority of people and the vast majority of countries are supportive of that objective and really want to ensure that these weapons are never used again."
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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