The Economics of Nuclear Weapons

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Mises: The Economics of Nuclear Weapons

JULY 15, 2015Ryan McMaken

 

Obtaining nuclear weapons is a way of getting reliable defensive capability on the cheap. This is why small, relatively powerless countries want them. North Korea can shell Seoul from the DMZ with conventional weapons fairly easily, but having a few nukes certainly hasn't hurt North Korea's ability to keep much larger powers at bay. Pakistan's status as a nuclear power means it faces no true threat of invasion from foreign powers, even large ones.

 

While they do not ensure a complete lack of armed aggression against one's territory, they have shown that they will prevent all-out foreign invasion or any foreign action that threatens the existence of a nuclear-armed state. (The end of the USSR shows that internal threats to a regime can be maintained without nuclear war.) And at a relatively low price tag. In other words, countries with nuclear weapons need not face the dreaded "unconditional surrender" demand that is standard practice for the US in its conflicts with non-nuclear powers.