NEW YORK -- The conclusions of a study led by former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix are important to overcome the present stalemate with Iran. According to the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, "the first line of defense against the spread of nuclear weapons is to make states feel that they don't need them," a goal that must be rooted in foreign policy and not in military action.
This statement is particularly pertinent today. Although significant progress was achieved through the Biological Weapons Convention of 1975 and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, which outlaw the production and use of these weapons, no similar progress has been achieved in the nuclear-weapons sphere.
The 1970 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons was successful in limiting the possession of nuclear weapons to the five countries which had them at the time -- China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Since then, and with the exception of India, Israel and Pakistan, every country in the world has joined the NPT. The treaty, however, has not succeeded in its aim of nuclear disarmament as called in its Article VI.