There are motives to seek nukes---multiple countries want denial-of-access and deterrence capabilities

The end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union have moved the principal zone of political uncertainty, and the interest in WMD and missiles, eastward, across the Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific basin.4 Major states in Asia, and in the Middle East within the range of long-range missiles based in Asia, see nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as potential trumps. The appeal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems for these states is at least threefold.5 First, they enable “denial of access” strategies against foreign powers who might want to interfere in regional issues (read: the US and NATO). US military success in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003 only reinforced the appeal of access denial based on WMD for aspiring regional hegemons or nervous dictators. Second, nuclear weapons might permit some states to deter others who lack countermeasures in the form of survivable retaliatory forces. Israel’s nuclear weapons, not officially acknowledged but widely known, have appealed to Tel Aviv as a deterrent against provocative behavior by Arab neighbors and as a possible “Samson” option on the cusp of military defeat leading to regime change.

Third, nuclear weapons permit states to maintain high-end deterrence against any outbreak of major war and to cover military power projection even against states or alliances with superior conventional forces. Russia is the most obvious example of this syndrome. Without its large nuclear arsenal, Russia would be more hesitant to assert its claims for special interests in former Soviet territory, including its opposition to US missile defense systems deployed in Eastern Europe, as well as its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent destabilization of eastern Ukraine.6 North Korea is another example of a state whose putative capabilities for deterrence or for coercion were at least temporarily enhanced by its deployment of nuclear weapons together with medium and longer range ballistic missiles.