After the end of the cold war, the United States (US) and its western allies have used two primary rationales to intervene in other countries: the first is the “violation of human rights by states” and the second is the “proli­feration of weapons of mass destruc­tion”. The latter is particularly ­inte­resting since some of the questions involved are objective: does a particular government have the technical wherewithal to manufacture a nuclear bomb or not?

Insider’s View