[Lee Cheol-hee Column] What Happens When the Nuclear Nonproliferation Lock Comes Off?

“Why Iran should get the bomb.” That was the title of a four-page essay Kenneth Waltz published in Foreign Affairs in 2012, a year before the neorealist international relations scholar died.

Waltz's argument was clear: stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons would be difficult, and the result might bring stability to the Middle East rather than the chaos many feared.

“

Why Iran should get the bomb.

He traced the region's instability to the military imbalance created by Israel's nuclear monopoly. In his view, responsibility lay not with Iran, which sought nuclear weapons, but with Israel, the region's sole nuclear-armed state, for bombing Iraq and Syria to preserve that status.

Waltz concluded that stability would follow once the balance of power was restored. He ended by invoking the title of his 1981 paper, “More may be better,” while the column turns to the opposing warning that a larger number of nuclear states could make the world more dangerous through miscalculation, accidents and the risk of weapons or materials leaking out.

“

More may be better.