In any case, the Iran nuclear deal confirms that we have entered a phase of ad hoc approaches to proliferation concerns, employing specific political geometries, whether the Joint Commission that is part of the Iran deal, or bilateral efforts and the six-party talks (the United States, North and South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia), which were less successful in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Perhaps we are getting better at ad hoc approaches, but making the best of the Iran nuclear deal will require a lot of difficult work, and we must pay careful attention in passing judgment on the process and in drawing lessons for the future.

Eric R. Terzuolo was a U.S. Foreign Service officer from 1982 to 2003, and focused on international security affairs. In 2001-2003, he was the senior U.S. resident representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. He is author of NATO and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Regional Alliance, Global Threats (Routledge, 2006) plus other books and articles on WMD proliferation.

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