In a collaborative article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on January 4, 2007, former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, along with former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn (D) wrote: ” ‘Nuclear weapons…were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War because they were a means of deterrence. The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete. Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective. ‘North Korea’s recent nuclear test and Iran’s refusal to stop its program to enrich uranium–potentially to weapons grade–highlight the fact that the world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era. Most alarmingly, the likelihood that non-state terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weaponry is increasing. In today’s war waged on world order by terrorists, nuclear weapons are the ultimate means of mass devastation. And non-state terrorist groups with nuclear weapons are conceptually outside the bounds of a deterrent strategy and present difficult new security challenges.’ ”
– Ron Suskind, The Way of the World, Page 124