Nuclear domino effect: history says otherwise

Foreign Affairs piece by way of WPR's Media Roundup.

The key bit from Johan Bergenas' solid piece:

But there's one problem with this "nuclear domino" scenario: the historical record does not support it. Since the dawn of the nuclear age, many have feared rapid and widespread nuclear proliferation; 65 years later, only nine countries have developed nuclear weapons. Nearly 20 years elapsed between the emergence of the first nuclear state, the United States, in 1945, and the fifth, China, in 1964.

The next 40 years gave birth to only five additional nuclear countries: India, Israel, South Africa, Pakistan, and North Korea. South Africa voluntarily disarmed in the 1990s, as did Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After Israel developed a nuclear weapons capability in the late 1960s, no regional nuclear chain reaction followed, even though the country is surrounded by rivals. Nor was there even a two-country nuclear arms race in the region.

Similarly, it has now been four years since North Korea became a nuclear weapons state, yet South Korea and Japan have not followed suit, despite the fact that they have a latent nuclear weapons capability -- access to the fissile material necessary for nuclear weapons. These countries' decisions to not go nuclear are largely thanks to extensive U.S. efforts to dissuade them.

When he turns to the Middle East, I think his numbers are optimistic: he says Iran may be 1-3 years away but everybody else in 10-15.  I give both the Saudis and Turks more credit than that.

But his logic--often echoed here--is hard to dismiss.  The hype on nuclear proliferation has been amazingly consistent across my nearly five decades of living--and amazingly and consistently wrong.