The U.S.-Soviet nuclear rivalry was scary enough. Now imagine a world with multiple atomic antagonists.
May 15, 2006
Fast forward to 2016. What does the world look like? One plausible scenario is that it will be a world of multiple mini-Cold Wars, with nuclear powers eyeball to eyeball in nearly every region. To some extent, that’s already true. In Asia, there’s a Cold war between India and Pakistan, though thankfully they seem to have entered a period of detente.
Japan could quickly acquire nuclear weapons if it felt insufficiently protected by the U.S. against China. South Korea might do the same if it lost faith in American protection. And might a decoupled Europe start to build up the Anglo-French nuclear capability as a response to energy blackmail from Russia? The key Cold War, however, would be the one in the Middle East, with Israel on one side and Iran on the other.
My Comments:
Yes, the Cold Wars are coming. Nuclear proliferation over many different countries is unstoppable at this point.
