The obsession with nuclear proliferation over the last three‐​quarters of a century has proved to be unwarranted, and, in a few cases, catastrophic. The few countries that have acquired these weapons have used them to stoke their egos or to deter real or imagined threats. In contrast, alarmed anti‐​proliferation efforts, as in the U.S. war in Iraq, have proved to be exceedingly costly, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The United States should abandon its bid to separate North Korea from its nuclear weapons and, with South Korea in the lead, push to normalize relations with Pyongyang.

Budgetary and strategic inertia has impeded the development of a U.S. military best suited to deal with future challenges. Over the past several decades, the military has repeatedly answered the call to arms as American foreign policy privileges the use of force over other instruments of power and influence. The era of near endless war has now stretched into its third decade. In a new paper, Cato scholars Eric Gomez, Christopher A. Preble, Lauren Sander, & Brandon Valeriano argue that Washington should realign national security objectives and motivate allies and partners to become more capable as America’s relative military advantage wanes and the focus inevitably turns to domestic priorities, including public health.