Who Pursues the Bomb? Leaders’Education Abroad and the Development of Weapons of Mass Destruction

What personal characteristics influence political leaders to pursue weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)? Although an extensive body of research addresses the factors that contribute to WMD proliferation, systematic studies on the impact of leaders' biographical factors remain scarce. Thus, this study presents a new theory that focuses on the effects of Western educational experiences on leaders' beliefs and values regarding WMD development. A statistical analysis using data on leaders' studies abroad from 1945 to 2000 found that, in general, studying in Western countries made leaders less likely to pursue both nuclear weapons and chemical and biological weapons. However, leaders who studied in Western nuclear powers were more likely to pursue nuclear development after taking office but less likely to pursue chemical and biological weapons. Our findings that study-abroad destinations have contrasting causal effects on nuclear and as well as chemical and biological weapons proliferation provide an alternative perspective to the dominant view in conventional WMD proliferation studies, which understands the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons by analogy with nuclear weapons.