Hiroshima’s Peace Park is a moving monument to the devastation wreaked by the first atomic bomb, dropped on the city in 1945. At least 70,000 people died in the initial blast and resultant firestorm, about 30 per cent of the city’s population.

The terrifying power of nuclear weapons seared itself on to the world’s consciousness. In spite of the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union, and several hair-raising accidents, no nuclear bomb has been used in anger since the second world war. Global leaders have understood that by using such weapons they are dicing with humanity’s collective death. Instead, they have agreed protocols to limit proliferation and reduce the chances of misunderstandings triggering Armageddon.

A new technological arms race is shaping up between the two superpowers of our times, the US and China. Again, lives are at stake, and again engagement and dialogue is needed.