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In 1934, Hungarian born physicist Leo Szilard proposed the idea of a nuclear chain reaction and its application as a possible weapon, which he patented with the British government that year. In the months of 1939 before the start of World War Two, leading German nuclear scientists formed the Uranverein, or Uranium Club, which expand on Leo Szilard's and other physicists' ideas that a nuclear weapon was buildable.

Even though war was imminent, the members of the Uranium Club furthered their research not to assist in the war effort, but as a continuation of the applications of nuclear physics. As to be expected, anything remotely concerning weapons was brought to the attention of the Nazi leadership who seized on the vast destructive capabilities that such a weapon could unleash and allocated a substantial amount of money and resources to the development of such a weapon. Despite its potential, the German military abandoned the pursuit of a nuclear weapon in 1942 after it realized that such a weapon would make no appreciable difference to the war effort.

By this time, the United States, to its horror, learned that Nazi Germany wanted a weapon of unimaginable destructive power. To deter the Nazis from using such a weapon, a group of scientists petitioned the United States government to build its own nuclear weapon. Even though the US did not know that Germany had already abandoned its military nuclear program, fear of a Nazi bomb lead to the Manhattan Project and the creation of the first nuclear weapon. It was in these steps that the nuclear arms race began, albeit its infancy, and illustrated three reasons why countries pursue nuclear weapons.

The first reason illustrated is intellectual curiosity. However, building a nuclear weapon for purely intellectual reasons only really occurred in the 1930s via the scientific talents of Leo Szilard and the Uranverein. The second and third reasons remain to this day: utility as a weapon and national security fears. In fact, they formed a cornerstone of the Cold War and continue to set policy for many nations today and will continue so in the future. A fourth reason also sets national policy for countries desiring nuclear weapons, that of national pride and prestige.

Despite the best efforts of the international community to halt their proliferation, attaining nuclear weapons will remain an attractive goal for both nations and terrorist organizations well into the future. To turn a phrase, the genie has been released

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