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With the intention of North Korea’s recent nuclear test under debate, two Dartmouth government professors write in a Foreign Affairs opinion piece that “Pyongyang tested a nuclear device for the same reason it has been testing long-range missile designs: to see what works. In truth, the effort was less a signal than an attempt to master the technical capabilities that are vital to its nuclear deterrent.”

Jennifer Lind and Daryl Press, both associate professors in the Department of Government, along with a colleague from Georgetown University, write that the current actions of North Korea are similar to those practiced by the United States during the Cold War. “The United States understood then that the ability to conduct nuclear operations was the very foundation of a credible deterrence strategy. Today, a sound strategy for dealing with North Korea should not ascribe ulterior motives to acts that the United States once considered rational and routine,” they write.

Read the full opinion piece, published 2/13/13 by Foreign Affairs.