Steven Pifer

"Persuading countries to give up nuclear weapons, or not to seek to acquire them in the first place, is a difficult exercise. The long—and thus far unsuccessful—efforts with North Korea and Iran offer evidence of that. But they are worthwhile: a North Korea without nuclear weapons would mean a much safer security situation in Northeast Asia, just as an Iranian decision to forgo its nuclear weapons program would promote stability in the Persian Gulf and reduce pressures for other states in the region to consider whether they should develop nuclear capabilities of their own."