A point often missed in disarmament discussions is the observation that shields are more dangerous than swords.
The factor that drives war isn’t “we have the power to destroy our enemies”. It’s “we’re invulnerable; we can be as dickish as we like and no-one can stop us”. Even worse is “we’re invulnerable now, but if we don’t destroy our rivals immediately we might become vulnerable”.
This is why the nuclear control treaties strongly prohibited the sorts of missile defence systems that the USA has been burning money on since Reagan (in blatant defiance of said treaties). As soon as a nuclear power has a reliable anti-ICBM defence, MAD stops working.
