The risks raised by nuclear weapons remain as potent as ever, but the institutional framework that mitigated them has been severely eroded. The task now is to prevent deterrence from giving way to proliferation—which, for Europe, means building conventional capabilities, keeping the US engaged, and upholding restraint.
About the Author:
Ana Palacio, a former minister of foreign affairs of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University.
MADRID—The nuclear question has returned to the center of global politics. While the specter of nuclear proliferation never disappeared, it was obscured for decades by a functioning and predictable global order, underpinned by a hegemonic United States, a strong NATO, and credible arms-control regimes. But this order is now under unprecedented strain, with the US-Israeli war on Iran just the latest evidence. How can we preserve nuclear restraint in a world in which the architecture of restraint is crumbling?