Nuclear nonproliferation takes another hit.

[jon_leonard]

One of the interesting bits of the crisis in Ukraine is that in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for a security guarantee. Russia, the US and the UK supposedly guarantee Ukraine's integrity; the value of this guarantee looks dubious at present.

The sets an unfortunate precedent for any future leaders trying to decide whether or not to maintain a nuclear arsenal. Nuclear powers, essentially, don't suffer territorial incursions, and non-nuclear powers do...