ABSTRACT
This chapter explores military threats and intervention as a tool in non-proliferation in general and in Iran in particular. Israel's nuclear weapons have created two very different policy options, one of a nuclear balance, the other a non-nuclear balance. Israel's nuclear posture includes preemptive strikes as a counter-proliferation measure. In the 1990s, Israel designated Iran as a lethal threat although the two countries were geostrategic partners in the 1980s. The international silence that followed the Syrian bombing may be seen as tacit recognition of the inevitability of preemptive attacks on "clandestine" nuclear programs in their early stages. The Iraq war was a clear choice between a rule-based multilateral approach in the Security Council as opposed to unilateral action without a Security Council mandate. Inspections supported by the Council that would have required a few more months to conclude were terminated.
