A new study is warning highly touted efforts at nuclear disarmament are being canceled out by parallel investments in new nuclear weapons systems. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says more than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use around the world, including 2,000 kept in a state of high alert. The world’s eight nuclear powers—Britain, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the United States—possess some 20,500 nuclear warheads. Because of new weapons spending, the study warns, “it seems unlikely there will be any real nuclear weapon disarmament within the foreseeable future.”