Pariah Nations

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Iran recently announced its intention to resume research for nuclear fueling. North Korea also warned that it would continue nuclear proliferation talks because United States actions in this year and the last have been influenced by the world’s pariah nations. These rogue nations may be more inclined to stand up to international pressure and “taunt the global community with more outlandish acts and statements” because of China’s rise as a global power. Iran’s new leader President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Israel’s right to exist and depicted the Holocaust as a fairytale while North Korean leader Pyongyang warned the U.S about financial sanctions imposed and is also building a nuclear arsenal.


The United States faced tensions with nations about nuclear weapons in the past. The United States funded an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the communist government under Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union and the United States were in the Cold War. Neither attacked each with nuclear weapons for fear of mutual assured destruction. In 1962, President Kennedy was informed that the Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles into Cuba. The Soviet leader had deployed missiles to prove the importance of the Soviet Cuban alliance and to protect the island from a second American invasion. This came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eventuallhy, the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the weapons it had deployed to Cuba.