narrow maritime confines like the Suez

narrow maritime confines like the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. But the likely proliferation of nuclear weapons -- and ballistic missile delivery systems -- will pose even more formidable challenges to conventional military surges in the region. In the future, the United States will not be able to take for granted unchallenged surges of naval, air, and ground forces into regional theaters via logistics hubs. These hubs -- like the American naval presence in Bahrain -- are large, readily identifiable, and will be increasingly vulnerable to future targeting by nuclear weaponry. Iran's nuclear weapons, assuming it gets them, will pose a direct threat to American military surge capabilities. Although American policymakers and military commanders might feel confident that they could surge forces into the Gulf despite Iranian nuclear threats because of the American nuclear deterrent, Gulf security partners might be more nervous and less willing to cooperate. As a result, they might not grant access to U.S. air, naval, and ground forces out of fear of angering Iran. American observers who doubt that Gulf states would make such calculations should recall how Kuwait responded in HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029720