UN General Assembly
1977

168. More than 30 years have elapsed since the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted its first resolution concerning disarmament. During the period since then, despite regular appeals by the international community for disarmament, occasional intensive negotiations and a number of international agreements, the arms race continues at an increased speed, threatening the peace and security of all countries and absorbing the resources urgently needed by the developing countries. This arms race is incompatible with efforts aimed at establishing a new international economic order and is also in contradiction with the policy of detente. Indeed, in a world where peace is essentially based on a balance of forces the distrust which results from divergent evaluations of that balance will render detente precarious, and there will always be the danger of a greater intensification of the armament efforts. The dangers involved in the proliferation of nuclear arms and the development of new techniques-to say nothing of the accumulation of conventional weapons -could render the present balance uncontrollable and could lead to rapid and dangerous upheavals.