THIS month marks the 60th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, which was the closest that the world ever came to a nuclear war. The US and the Soviet Union faced off over Cuba, where the latter had secretly deployed nuclear weapons in response to Washington earlier deploying the same in Turkey. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed, and both superpowers ended up withdrawing their weapons from each of these countries. Nevertheless, this crisis taught everyone some enduring lessons that are relevant today.

The first is that security dilemmas are very dangerous. This concept refers to one country unilaterally making moves that it claims are defensive, but which are interpreted by another as offensive. The second country therefore reciprocates in its own way so as to defend its interests, which perpetuates a seemingly never-ending cycle that can reach dramatic proportions if left unchecked. In the case of the Cuban missile crisis, everything started with the US' secret deployment of nuclear weapons to Turkey.