Yes, a blessing. For at last there has occurred an event that exposes the reality, and the insanity, of nuclea r proliferation. The subcontinent has recklessly concentrated the mind. From the stan dpoint of strategy, moreover, nothing much has changed in the wake of the subcontinent's fortnight of mega-saberrattling, except that now each of these states has five fewer of the obscene devices in its arsenal. But the standpoint of strategy is never the only standpoint that is required for the understanding of this problem.
Nuclear weapons are the military instruments of political designs.
It is the political reality of nuclear proliferation to which we have been rudely awakened. For this reason, we must beware of a revival of the old illusion about arms races, which is that they are the cause of wars. Never mind that nu clear weapons were not the worst mistake of the twentieth century, and never mind that the president's millennialism has become a form of thoughtlessness. The important point is that wars are not caused by arms races. Wars are caused by political and mili tary authorities who are driven by symbols and appetites and ideas and fears.