The Iran war has lessons to teach us about nuclear weapons – but we risk learning the wrong ones

Nuclear “non-proliferation” – preventing the spread of nuclear weapons beyond states that already have them – has been held up as the rationale for the US-Israeli war on Iran.

In his statement announcing the start of the operation on February 28, Donald Trump said: “we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

This highlights two lessons about the problems with non-proliferation logic…

© La Conversation - lundi 23 mars 2026