ABSTRACT
The weak international legal norm against nuclear weapons complicates efforts to prevent state and nonstate actors from acquiring nuclear weapons. The political stability necessary for the controlled maintenance of nuclear weapons cannot be guaranteed in the long run. A nuclear weapon-free world, which not only removes nuclear weapons but also the main incentives for their development, provides security gains for all states. The end of the Cold War has intensified the doubts in the purpose and the legitimacy of nuclear weapons. At the Review and Extension Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995 a critical mass of states and non-governmental organization came together, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Since 1997 the political conditions for nuclear disarmament dramatically declined. The final objective of nuclear disarmament negotiations would be a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which together with the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention would completely ban and eliminate all weapons of mass destruction.
