The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency

This page has information about the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency (see below).

Non-Proliferation Treaty

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was concluded in 1968 and entered into force on March 5, 1970. It is the founding document of multilateral nonproliferation endeavours and deals with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and contains commitments on nonproliferation, safeguards, nuclear disarmament, nuclear energy and nuclear-weapons free zones. Its first paragraph explained the reason why the NPT was negotiated and needed: “Considering the devastation that would be visited upon all mankind by a nuclear war and the consequent need to make every effort to avert the danger of such a war and to take measures to safeguard the security of peoples...”. All countries except India, Israel, and Pakistan have joined this Treaty, although in 2003 North Korea withdrew in order to develop nuclear weapons, which it demonstrated with nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The Acronym Institute has closely followed NPT developments since 1994.

The NPT held its 8th Review Conference during 3-28 May 2010 in New York.  For information and analysis on the 2010 NPT Review Conference, including the Acronym Institute's daily blog from the conference, please visit the 2010 RevCon page. Since 2010, there has been little progress on conference agreements and NPT implementation, particularly with regard to the flagship commitment to appoint a facilitator and hold a conference in 2012 to take forward the objectives of the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East, including a Zone free of weapons of mass destruction. From 30 June - 1 July 2011, the five NPT-recognised Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) held a meeting in Paris to follow up on the commitments they made at the 2010 NPT Review Conference. According to their press statement the self-designated “P5” (so called because the five – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US – are also the permanent members of the UN Security Council) “continued their previous discussions on the issues of transparency and mutual confidence, including nuclear doctrine and capabilities, and of verification, recognizing such measures are important for establishing a firm foundation for further disarmament efforts”.

This page provides recent coverage of the NPT. Coverage prior to 2010 can be found via the NPT Archive page.

NPT Key Texts and Data

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), full text
• States that have signed and ratified the Treaty
• Final Document, 2010 NPT Review Conference
• Nuclear Disarmament Plan of Action, Final Document, 2000 NPT Review Conference
• Decisions of the 1995 NPT Review Conference on Strengthening the Treaty review process, Principles & Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; NPT Extension, and the Resolution on the Middle East

NPT Briefings: 2010 & beyond

In 2010, the Acronym Institute produced a series of key briefings for the 2010 NPT Review Conference and beyond. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of key thinkers, analysts and experts in the field of multilateral arms control and international security, the briefings address some of the core issues relating to the NPT, non-proliferation and disarmament with the aim of enhancing the conference outcome and developing collective strategies to move towards security in a world free of nuclear weapons. The briefings remain a key resource for those working on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation:

• 1 - The NPT & Nuclear Disarmament
• 2 - Strengthening the NPT
• 3 - Reducing the Role of Nuclear Weapons
• 4 - Universal Security Assurances
• 5 - 'Tactical' Nuclear Weapons
• 6 - Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence
• 7 - The CTBT's Role in NPT credibility
• 8 - Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium: Stopping the fissile materials that make nuclear weapons
• 9 - Nuclear Power
• 10 - Middle East NWFZ
• 11 - Nuclear Weapons Convention

Other NPT Analysis from the Acronym Institute

• Rhetoric and reality, contradictions in the midst of change: The UK government role at the 2010 NPT Review Conference, by Kat Barton, January 2011
  This article explores the role played by the UK government in the run-up to, during and after the 2010 NPT Review Conference and reflects on the prospects for the UK's fulfilment of its disarmament obligations under the NPT. It will be published in Italian in March 2011 in Chiara Bonaiuti and Achille Lodovisi (ed.), 'Perspectives for Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament between Rhetoric and Reality, The NPT at the VIII Review Conference, The role of Europe', Italian Yearbook on Arms and Disarmament, Pisa, Edizioni Plus.

• Assessing the NPT Review Conference, by Rebecca Johnson
  In this article Acronym Institute Director Rebecca Johnson reflects on the 2010 NPT Review Conference calling it 'a necessary success' with 'far-reaching implications'. Originally published by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistsin July 2010.
  
  
• Rebecca Johnson's blog posts from the 2010 NPT Review Conference can be found here
  
  
• Rethinking the NPT's Role in Security
  This paper is written by Acronym Institute Director Rebecca Johnson and was originally published in the Chatham House journal 'International Affairs'.
  
• Beyond Existing Treaties
  This article considers what is needed to advance the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. It appears in the February 2010 issue of the US State Department's monthly 'eJournal USA' entitled A World Free of Nuclear Weapons. [Read the original verson here.]
  
  
• Elements for an Action Plan for Nuclear Disarmament & Non-Proliferation at the 2010 NPT Review Conference
  This paper is based on the presentation given by Acronym Institute Director Rebecca Johnson at the international NPT workshop hosted by the President-designate for the forthcoming 2010 NPT Review Conference, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, in Manila in February. It draws on various ideas and discussions, with particular appreciation to John Burroughs, author of the excellent NPT briefing paper published by the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI) in January 2010.
  
  
• An Introduction to 2010 NPT Review Conference by Acronym Institute Director Rebecca Johnson, January 2010
  
  
• A video of Acronym Institute Director Rebecca Johnson giving her views ahead of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May 2010.
  
  
• Laying Substantive Groundwork for 2010: Report of the 2009 NPT PrepCom, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
  
  
• Enhanced Prospects for 2010: An Analysis of the Third PrepCom and the Outlook for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, by Rebecca Johnson, published in Arms Control Today, June 2009

Towards 2010 and Beyond

• Security Assurances for Everyone: A New Approach to Deterring the Use of Nuclear Weapons, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy No.90, Spring 2009
  
  
• Challenges for the Non-Proliferation Regime and the Middle East, by Sameh Aboul-Enein, Disarmament Diplomacy No.90, Spring 2009
  
  
• Proposals, Positions and Prospects: Issues facing the 2010 NPT Review Conference, by Michael Spies, Disarmament Diplomacy No.90, Spring 2009
  
  
• Challenges for the NPT: Iran and North Korea, by Michael Spies, Disarmament Diplomacy No.90, Spring 2009
  

Background

• The 2008 NPT PrepCom: Good Meeting, but was it Relevant? by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, No. 88, Summer 2008.

More Acronym coverage of the 2008 PrepCom is available at our NPT archive.

Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiatives (2009 & before)

Government, Parliamentary and Official Speeches and Documents

• Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces Road to 2010 plan, 16 July 2009
• President Obama calls for Non-Proliferation Summit, G8 press conference, 10 July 2009
• Joint Statement by President Dmitriy Medvedev of the Russian Federation and President Barack Obama of the United States of America, London, April 1, 2009
• Barack Obama, President of the United States of America,
  Speech at Hradcany Square, Prague, 5 April, 2009
• Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls for World without Nuclear Weapons, 17 March 2009
• 'Five Steps towards Abolishing Nuclear Weapons', IAEA Director-General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei article in Seuddeutsch, 4 February 2009
• Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view, By Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsäcker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2009
• Lifting the Nuclear Shadow, Launch of UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Policy Information Paper, 4 February 2009
• Let's Commit to a Nuclear-Free World, Dianne Feinstein Wall Street Journal Oped, 3 January 2009
• A world without nuclear weapons, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband article, 8 December 2008
• Debate on Disarmament, Letter from M. Nicola Sarkozy, President of the Republic to Mr Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, 5 December 2008
• Baroness Williams of Crosby Evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, including comments on the Rudd Commission, 5 November 2008
• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon speech on 'The United Nations and security in a nuclear-weapon-free world', 24 October 2008
• Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd initiates New International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.88, Summer 2008

Non-Governmental Initiatives

• A New Strategic Posture for the United States and a Nuclear Weapons Complex to Support it, Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation (NWCC) Policy Network
• From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence:
  A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, Hans M. Kristensen, Robert S. Norris and Ivan Oelrich
• The Trident and International Law: Scotland's Obligations, Conference Speeches, 3 February 2009
• Letter to the Times by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, General Lord Ramsbotham and General Sir Hugh Beach, 16 January 2009
• Former Los Alamos R&D chief, Stephen M. Younger on the NPT, 10 January 2009
• Presentation by Dr Rebecca Johnson, Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, European Parliament, Socialist Group Conference on 'Peace and Disarmament: A world without nuclear weapons', 9 December 2008
• Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view, By Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsäcker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2009
• Global Zero Launch, Paris, 9 December 2008
• Oslo Conference on Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, Jonas Gahr Støre, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Statement to the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, March 4, 2008 (excerpts)
• Toward a Nuclear-Free World, by George P Shultz, William J Perry, Henry A Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 15 January 2008
• A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, Wall Street Journal article by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 4 January 2007

External Links

• For NGO opinion, statements and documents from the 2007 PrepCom and past NPT meetings see http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
• For academic analysis and detail on the NPT, see the Monterrey Institute of International Studies and the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies.
• United Nations page on the NPT
• International Atomic Energy Agency

See also: Acronym Institute coverage of previous NPT Review Conferences and PrepComs.

International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible for safegards agreements under the NPT (Article III). Increasingly, questions are raised about the contradictions between effective fulfilment of this verification role and the IAEA's mission of promoting nuclear energy. The Acronym Institute does not cover the IAEA's work in general, but only in relation to the NPT. See also our section on Iran and Nuclear Weapons for coverage of IAEA engagement with Iran and the North Korea section for IAEA statements relevant to North Korea.

Reports and Statements

• IAEA Report on Iran, 24 May 2011
• IAEA Report on Syria, 24 May 2011
• IAEA Report on Iran, February 2011
• IAEA report on Iran, 23 November 2010
• IAEA report on Iran, 6 September 2010
• IAEA report on Syria, 6 September 2010
• IAEA report on Israel, 3 September 2010
• Yukiya Amano Appointed Next IAEA Director-General, Disarmament News Review, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
• No consensus on International Nuclear Fuel Bank, Disarmament News Review, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
• 'Towards a New Global Security System', IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei speech, 20 July 2009
• IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei Oped, 15 July 2009
• IAEA Director-General Introductory Statement to the IAEA Board of Governors, 15 June 2009
• IAEA Director-General Intervention on Non-Proliferation to the IAEA Board of Governors, 15 June 2009
• IAEA Director-General Interview with Der Standard, 11 June 2009
• IAEA Director-General Interview on Iran, 23 May 2009
• IAEA Director General ElBaradei interview with Der Spiegel, 18 May 2009
• IAEA Director General ElBaradei introductory statement to the Board of Governors, 2 March 2009
• IAEA report on Iran, 19 February 2009
• IAEA Director General ElBaradei OpEd, 16 February 2009
• 'Five Steps towards Abolishing Nuclear Weapons', IAEA Director-General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei article in Seuddeutsch, 4 February 2009
• Reinforcing the Global Nuclear Order for Peace and Prosperity: The Role of the IAEA to 2020 and Beyond - Commission of Eminent Persons Report, IAEA, May 2008
• IAEA Director General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei on Nuclear Fuel Supply, 17 April 2008
• 20/20 Vision for the Future, report by IAEA Director General for the Commission of Eminent Persons, February 2008

Click here for older IAEA Statements and Documents

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