Friday, November 09, 2007

Middle East Nuclear Arms Race

Why haven't we heard on the news the fact that the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced last week that Egypt was going to start up its own nuclear program, or that Saudi Arabia has announced the same thing? Saudi Arabia ostensibly wants to do so to stave off the Iranian threat, but if I were, say, Israel, I wouldn't be too keem on any of these counries having nuclear weapons. Nor would I be all that thrilled if I were any European country. Game theory (mutually assured destruction) worked out well during the cold war to prevent the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from going to war using nuclear weapons. However, if you have a peoples who are not afraid of death; if you have some of those people who not only aren't afraid of death, but welcome it; if you have a country led by a man who believes world destruction is necessary to bring back the 12th Imam -- game theory aproaches based on people as rational actors just won't work.

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