Cheaters Risk

In a world without nuclear weapons, breaking out as a nuclear power - without getting caught - would be a difficult enterprise.  Cheater's Risk, a new online game from the Henry L. Stimson Center, lets you try your hand at navigating the pathways and pitfalls to becoming a rogue nuclear power in a world at nuclear zero.

David Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and contributing editor to Foreign Policy, said in a recent blog:

The Henry L. Stimson Center has just put together an online simulation that allows the user to play rogue state decision-maker in the year 2040, navigating the pathways to building a bomb without getting caught. It’s called Cheater’s Risk.

Every day, we’re swamped by the news about nuclear nonproliferation. But this simulation is refreshingly clear on the major topics. You decide which country you want to play, the pathways, and roll the dice on the chances of getting caught at such things as obtaining the fissile material or assembling a weapon.

Cheater's Risk builds upon the detailed research in the book Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, edited by Barry Blechman and Alex Bolfrass.