1. Taking Stephen Miller at his word today, US (or any aggressive power) openly takes over any country they can, regardless of treaties
2. Other countries can either submit to will of people like Miller, or resist
3. Aggressors never attack even small countries that have nuclear weapons (such as North Korea)
4. Other countries notice this pattern, and start getting their own nukes
5. Aggressors refrain from attacking countries that now have nukes
6. Posession of nuclear weapons becomes definition of independent country
7. Likelihood of accidental nuclear escalation very greatly increases 😞
@FediThing On the flip side, greater proliferation of nuclear weapons and attenuated opportunity cost of resisting US economic power might help foster economic and political independence and coalitions of mutual respect between nations
That said, I don't think the desire to acquire nukes will continue much longer. People are seeing how little nuclear weapons have helped Russia maintain any red lines in Ukraine. They're not the geopolitical hammer once imagined.