It's very hard to break that cycle when the only way to become a legitimate world power is to obtain nuclear weapons. There are many examples: Pakistan vs Iran, Israel, North Korea, they all prove how obtaining nuclear weapons is the right strategic choice if you want to matter in the international arena.

There is zero commitment from the major nuclear powers for an eventual complete denuclearization, the only thing they agree about is that they should be the only ones having nuclear weapons. As long as this hypocritical game goes on, the world will gain more, not less, nuclear states.

And we'll keep hearing this tune: "The world is too dangerous to aim for complete denuclearization, look, country X just became nuclear illegally by breaking [bullshit nuclear treaty we designed to keep our geopolitical edge]".