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Why the North Korea Crisis Has Serious Implications for the Middle East
(The National-Abu Dhabi) David Rothkopf - The crisis created by the rapid advancements in North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities has implications for future efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program. North Korea has reawakened America to the palpable threat of nuclear war for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, as U.S. media focused on the possibility of a nuclear strike against America by a rogue state. The result is a much greater public awareness of the dangers of nuclear proliferation, as the American people receive a crash course in what happens if a hostile regime gains the ultimate destructive power of atomic weapons. They are now thinking as they have not in the past about the special challenges posed by states that may not be rational actors and may not be susceptible to the power of deterrence. The writer is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.