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There was a time when nuclear disarmament was actually happening. That is passed now, of course.

Incentives were aligned better there, though. Disarmament happened only to the extent it didn't threaten the MAD doctrine, and it reduced ongoing maintenance costs for everyone involved.

> Disarmament happened only to the extent it didn't threaten the MAD doctrine, and it reduced ongoing maintenance costs for everyone involved.

The U.S. and USSR were the only countries embracing MAD. The other nuclear powers embraced flavors of what we now call minimal deterrence [1]. (Think it's helpful to know deterrence theory has options other than MAD.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_deterrence

Few countries have obtained nukes only to later relinquish them.

South Africa did, because the outgoing government didn't want to hand nukes to its successor government.

Ukraine, well, see how that worked out.

Kazakhstan, Belarus... seems ok for them so far.

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