From Asia Times, February 15:
If the US decides to stay the course in Europe, nuclear weapons deployment will have to be on the agenda
Dalibor Rohac, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute writing in the London Spectator, says that Poland should have nuclear weapons.
Rohac claims “When it comes to Trump-proofing the security of Eastern Europe, few measures would be as effective as arming the largest country of the region – Poland – with nuclear weapons.”
A similar argument could be put forward for South Korea and Taiwan. Nuclear weapons for South Korea would match the nuclear missiles in the hands of North Korea. Taiwan, with nuclear weapons, could offset China’s nuclear threat to the island.
Does any of this make sense?
In past years the United States has strongly opposed the proliferation of nuclear weapons by other countries, with exceptions made for the UK and France. The UK “shares” its nuclear arsenal with the United States. France has its own nuclear deterrent, the Force de Frappe (sometimes called the Force de Dissuasion).
Israel, a US ally but not a NATO member, does not admit it has nuclear weapons, but Israel allegedly has nuclear-armed Jericho missiles, nuclear gravity bombs and, more recently, submarine nuclear-armed cruise missiles.
From time to time the US has tried to cut off Israel from nuclear technology and force it to open up about its nuclear development facility in Dimona, in Israel’s Negev desert. Israel neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons and, in the past, has said it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
The Dimona complex has recently been expanded.
The US reportedly halted the nuclear programs in South Korea and Taiwan. When the US announced it would reduce its presence in Korea and pull US troops out of the country in July 1970, South Korea sought to get plutonium from France to build atomic weapons. In 1975 the United States persuaded France not to deliver plutonium to South Korea and the US took other steps, including access to long range rocket technology, to force South Korea to halt its nuclear program....
....MUCH MORE
