Christopher Hitchens isn’t an arms-control expert (thank God), but he is a damn fine writer, master polemicist and certifiable Big Thinker. He’s come up with his own nuclear non-proliferation regime over on Slate. Bottom line:
The possession of illegally acquired nuclear weapons remains a huge threat and burden to neighboring states and to international law, but history shows that it is also nearly insupportable for the offending state and has a long-run tendency to shorten the lifespan of its despots. It’s a good thing that, so far, disarmament and democratization have shown themselves to be natural allies.
I guess this means that once the states with illegally-acquired nuclear weapons implode, the rest of us – you know, the big 5 (U.S., Russia, China, U.K. and France) who came by their nuclear arsenals more or less legally, whatever that means — can get rid of them, too.
