“The best way for any state to deter a rival from using its nuclear arsenal for political gain is to have its own nuclear retaliatory force. This basic fact of life in the nuclear age explains why the United States has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons, even if it deploys a sophisticated national missile defense system.”

American political scientist and international relations scholar

John Joseph Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and scholar of international relations, and a professor at the University of Chicago. He is known for his work on great power politics and the theory of offensive realism. His writing and teaching focus on how states compete for power in an anarchic international system. He has become widely associated with realist thinking in international affairs, especially questions of security, rivalry, and the behavior of major powers.