In the 1990’s the superpowers drastically cut their nuclear arsenals – and cut their conventional forces just as deeply. The U.S. eliminated half its ICBM’s, including all of its biggest missiles, all ground launched cruise missiles, all Pershing missiles, and scrapped most of the B-52 force. Even France got rid of all of it’s land based missiles. Relations between the Federal Republic of Russia and the USA got downright cordial, with B-52 and Tu-95 Bear bomber units performing friendship visits to each other’s bases. The U.S. built facilities to dispose of Russian rocket fuel and paid Russia for its Plutonium for use as fuel.

And the result of that was….

Pakistan developed nuclear weapons and conducted tests. India responded with nuclear tests. Saddam kept trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and North Korea started a nuclear program, stopped it for a while, and then started it up again.

The additional proliferation was all in response to the superpowers appearing to step back and decrease their involvement in world affairs. So obviously, we just did not do enough of that.