Opinion
Opinion

Raising Costs to Nuclear Proliferators

Raising Costs to Nuclear Proliferators
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William Courtney
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Commentary

Israeli and U.S. military strikes in June have raised the cost to Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons. Proliferators must now weigh military risks along with political and financial costs. Iran may be a special case; it has invested so much that it may try to restart its nuclear arms effort. Other potential nuclear rogues may be more deterred.

William Courtney
William Courtney
Author
William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at RAND and professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. In a career in the foreign service, he was deputy U.S. negotiator in U.S.-Soviet Defense and Space (missile defense) talks in Geneva and ambassador in negotiations there to implement the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.