13.1.1 Birth of a landmark treaty

On Monday, 16 July 1945, the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated by the United States. By the mid-1960s, there were five States which had produced and tested nuclear weapons, including China, France, the former Soviet Union (USSR; today called the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). Recognizing the negative impact to their respective national interests if other States were to produce and test such devices, two of the nuclear-weapon States, the US and the USSR, sought to erect an institutional mechanism to limit the further spread of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was first adopted on 12 June 1968, and then on 5 March 1970 it was brought into force. There are two distinct but interrelated NPT verification goals: to build confidence between parties; and to deter against treaty violation by risk of detection.

The text of the NPT segregates the signatories into two camps: the ‘haves’ (i. e., nuclear-weapon States, NWS) and the ‘have-nots’ (i. e., non-nuclear — weapon States, NNWS). The Treaty defines a NWS as one which has manu­factured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January 1967. This meant that five States were recognized as declared nuclear-weapon States at the time the Treaty entered into force: China, France, the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since 1 January 1967, several other States are known to have, or are assumed to have, conducted a nuclear weapons test. These countries are not recognized as nuclear-weapon States according to the NPT’s definition.

The NPT was given an initial 25-year lifespan in Article X of the Treaty, though another provision, Article VIII, entails a review process that occurs every five years with the goal of assuring that the Treaty’s objectives are being realized. During the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, a decision that the NPT shall continue in force indefinitely was included among the package of decisions that were adopted.[12] The Conference also reaffirmed the universality of the NPT, stating ‘Universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is an urgent priority. All States not yet Party to the Treaty are called upon to accede to the Treaty at the earliest date, particularly those States that operate unsafeguarded nuclear facilities.’ The most recent NPT Review Conference was held in 2010 and concluded with the adoption of a 22-point action plan (over the next five years) to advance the three main pillars of the Treaty: nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The final 2010 document also provides an article-by-article review of the NPT’s operations, taking into account the decisions and resolutions previ­ously adopted by both the 1995 Review and Extension Conference and the 2000 Review Conference.[13]