This is apropos a letter to the Editor carried by the newspaper on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The example of India and Pakistan is frequently cited in this context. Before both states became overt nuclear powers, the possibility of large-scale conventional war remained a persistent concern.
After nuclearization, despite crises and tensions, leaders on both sides have had to calculate under the shadow of mutually assured destruction.
The existence of nuclear weapons has not eliminated conflict, but it has significantly raised the threshold for full-scale war.
A similar argument is made regarding the Korean Peninsula. North Korea’s strategic leverage does not come from economic strength or global influence. Rather, its nuclear capability has created a deterrent that makes direct military action against it far more difficult to contemplate.
Whatever one thinks of the regime, its nuclear arsenal has fundamentally altered how other powers approach it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a former Press Secretary to the President, An ex-Press Minister at Embassy of Pakistan to France, a former MD, SRBC Macomb, Detroit, Michigan