That is the question that most preoccupies Alex Wellerstein at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. On continuity of government he says, “I’m not interested in that… that’s their problem.”

Wellerstein recently announced that he and his colleagues are taking part in a project to reinvent civil defence. That is, the methods and information campaigns designed to help the public protect themselves in the event of a military attack or natural disaster.

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Civil defence was much more commonly discussed during the Cold War – when the spectre of nuclear attack shaped popular culture and was prevalent in politics. We don’t talk about the bomb dropping or the aftermath so much these days, but that needs to change, argues Wellerstein.

After all, there remain about 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, the vast majority owned by Russia and the United States. The leaders of both countries recently agreed with one another that relations between their states were at a dangerously low point.

Although Wellerstein acknowledges that nuclear war or a small-scale nuclear detonation by a rogue state or terrorist group is extremely unlikely, he believes there is still value in being prepared just in case.