As a historian I will boringly say it depends on the circumstances of their elimination and the broader world context. (E.g., Are we talking treaties or magic, here?)
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Do you know the sociologist Donald MacKenzie's work on uncertainty in nuclear weapons tech? You might find it interesting...
Oh you will want to read "Inventing Accuracy" in that case. There is also a shorter excerpt I could send you ("Nuclear Missile Testing and the Social Construction of Accuracy"). It is about how experts, politicians, activists, etc. deal with uncertainty. Very relevant these days.
