Zach Nunn: “This threat is very different from the threat of nuclear annihilation with which our Nation and the world has dealt…”

“This threat is very different from the threat of nuclear annihilation with which our Nation and the world has dealt during the cold war. During the cold war, both we and the Soviet Union recognized that either side could destroy the other within about an hour, but only at the price of its own destruction. In the course of carrying out that mutual assured destruction, most of the rest of the civilized world would have been destroyed, in greater or lesser degree, as well. Today, this kind of cataclysmic threat is greatly reduced. And if we are able to continue to implement START I and START II Treaties on both sides, reducing the number of warheads dramatically, it will be reduced further. Tragically, the end of the cold war, however, has not brought peace and stability, but rather has seemingly unleashed countless small bloody wars around the globe. The end of the cold war also encouraged a number of states that are hostile to the United States to try to acquire weapons of mass destruction and appropriate delivery means as an adjunct to their conventional military forces.”