Security threats are mounting to the Pakistani state and therefore to various commercial interests as well as potential targets of its nuclear arsenal.
By mid-March, traders had become convinced that the combination of the geopolitical problems and supply interruptions (as well as the potential for a nuclear disaster) in Japan would cause the global economy to slow.
That effectively narrows the potential U.S. nuclear targets to the eight declared nuclear powers, as well as Iran and possibly Syria, said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, an arms-control group.