Nuclear Proliferation: What Could Go Wrong?

Why do countries continue to strive toward attaining nuclear weapons? Ask Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad…

Developing nuclear weapons, and proving to the world that you have them via test detonations, helps insulate the regime from the international community. Ironically, America’s anti-proliferation agenda has helped incentivize dictators to pursue the construction of weapons of mass destruction as fast as possible. There can be little doubt that Saddam and Gaddafi would still be in power today if they had acquired nuclear weapons. Assad would probably be in a very different position as well, somewhat like Pakistan—a country that is nominally allied with America but undermines us on multiple fronts and is protected from regime change by their small nuclear arsenal.

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