Split, the zones in the world that have absolute immunity from hankypanky from any upstart nations are the EU, the US, China, India, and Russia.
No upstart would even dream of lobbing a nuclear missile at us, we are simply too enormous and well armed and the outcome would be guaranteed, retaliation.
Iran being a threat - that is just more fearmongering from the NeoCons who want to go after Irans oil.
The biggest threat to any other nation in this new millenium was not Iran, Iraq or North Korea, that was the US, as measured per people killed.
All that is needed to run the world smoothly is a sufficient deterrent, and we have that in abundance.
All the monies spent beyond that fulfill no purpose as the lost wars of Iraq and Afghanistan amply prove.
Powell and Rice assure everyone Iraq is NO THREAT pre-9/11 as it is perfectly contained
YouTube - Powell and Rice assure everyone Iraq is NO THREAT pre-9/11
Deterrence and the threat of retaliation, plus a return to dialogue amongst nations, is what does the trick.
Attacking innocent nations doesn't subdue nor overcome them, it simply creates terrorists or freedom fighters that no army is equipped to overcome, all that begets is the infamous vicious cycle of assymetric warfare we are witnessing today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and for centuries in the situation between Israel and the Palestinians, for many decades also between the Brits and the Northern Irish.
The last two are perfect examples of how no amount of force and counter force
ever changes the staus quo of death and suffering on both sides...
You Brits solved the situation when you ended the military engagement, and came to a nagotiated settlement based not on any loudly proclaimed positions, but instead on the true and legitimate interests of both sides.
Thats how winners act, not this childish posturing of big armies in third world sand boxes without any tangible results, and with no more justification than that it was based on the behest of a personal coward like Bush who had no qualms in sending soldiers to death and mutilation while he himself ran away from that fate in his time even though he supported that other disastrous example of misguided foreign policy, the Vietnam war.