For the reality based community, here's a run-through on why the US and NATO have served to prevent nuclear proliferation around the globe. Trump is forcing every nation that can get nukes to get nukes. No way civilization will long survive a jungle-like nuclear arms race. No way.
The U.S. policy of extended deterrence was born out of the overwhelming conventional threat posed to Western Europe by the Soviet Union at the dawn of the Cold War. To deter Soviet invasion and expansion, the United States extended nuclear deterrence abroad. NATO was created as a nuclear alliance in 1949, with nuclear deterrence made credible by U.S. nuclear forces forward-deployed to NATO serving as the foundation of the collective defense agreement.2 The policy of extended deterrence was not limited to Europe. In the Pacific, to defend against growing threats from China and North Korea, the U.S. nuclear umbrella expanded to include Australia, Japan, and South Korea, with U.S. nuclear weapons forward-deployed to South Korea, though without NATO-style nuclear-sharing arrangements and fully under U.S. control.
The policy of extended deterrence remains a key component of the security strategy of the United States and its allies. The 2022 Nuclear Posture Review released by the Joseph R. Biden administration affirms the U.S. commitment to extended deterrence, stating that the United States would “[ensure] our strategic deterrent remains safe, secure, and effective, and our extended deterrence commitments remain strong and credible.”3 Furthermore, allies under the nuclear umbrella have reiterated the importance of relying on the U.S. extended nuclear deterrent for their security. The Secretary General’s 2022 annual report reaffirmed NATO’s status as a nuclear alliance, stating, “As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance.”4
In 2023, the Washington Declaration affirmed that South Korea “has full confidence in U.S. extended deterrence commitments and recognizes the importance, necessity, and benefit of its enduring reliance on the U.S. nuclear deterrent.”5 Japan’s Defense White Paper provides a summary of a U.S.-Japan defense ministerial meeting in which Japan “stated that bilateral efforts at various levels to ensure nuclear deterrence remains credible and resilient [are] more important than ever under the current international security situation.”6 And finally, Australia’s National Defence Strategic Review states, “In our current strategic circumstances, the risk of nuclear escalation must be regarded as real. Our best protection against the risk of nuclear escalation is [U.S.] extended nuclear deterrence.”7