Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968): Curbing the Bomb

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, usually called the NPT, was opened for signature in London, Moscow and Washington on 1 July 1968. It created a bargain between states with nuclear weapons and those without them: the latter would not acquire the bomb, the former would work towards disarmament, and all would share in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. With 191 states parties, it is the cornerstone of the international effort to limit the spread of nuclear weapons.

Background: fear of a nuclear world

By the early 1960s four countries had tested nuclear weapons: the United States (1945), the Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952) and France (1960). China followed in October 1964. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the arms race of the 1950s had shown the destructive power at stake, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 brought the superpowers close to nuclear war.

Many experts feared that nuclear weapons would spread rapidly to other industrial states. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy publicly worried that in the 1970s an American president might face a world with 15, 20 or 25 nuclear-armed nations. Each new arsenal, it was argued, would increase the chances of accidents, regional nuclear wars and weapons falling into unstable hands.

Negotiating the treaty

The idea of a treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons was promoted at the United Nations by Ireland. Its foreign minister, Frank Aiken, pressed the issue from 1958, and in December 1961 the General Assembly unanimously adopted the “Irish Resolution”, calling for an agreement to stop the transfer and acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Serious negotiations followed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. A key obstacle was a US proposal for a NATO “multilateral force” sharing nuclear weapons with allies, including West Germany, which the Soviet Union rejected. Once this plan was dropped, the US and Soviet delegations at the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee in Geneva produced identical draft treaties in August 1967.

Non-nuclear countries pushed for concessions. They won the inclusion of a commitment to disarmament negotiations and a guarantee of their right to nuclear energy. On 12 June 1968 the UN General Assembly commended the final text, and on 1 July 1968 it was opened for signature. Some 60 states signed on the first day.

What the treaty says: the three pillars

The NPT is short, with eleven articles. Its provisions are usually described as three pillars:

• Non-proliferation (Articles I–III): nuclear-weapon states agree not to transfer nuclear weapons or help others make them; non-nuclear states agree not to acquire them and to accept safeguards (inspections) by the International Atomic Energy Agency on their nuclear materials.
• Disarmament (Article VI): every party undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on ending the nuclear arms race and on nuclear disarmament.
• Peaceful use (Article IV): all parties keep the “inalienable right” to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and to share in its benefits.

The treaty recognises as nuclear-weapon states only those that had manufactured and exploded a nuclear device before 1 January 1967: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and China.

Entry into force and growth

The NPT entered into force on 5 March 1970, after ratification by the three depositary states and forty others. It was originally concluded for 25 years. Review conferences have been held every five years to assess how it is working.

Membership grew steadily. France and China, which had refused to join, acceded in 1992. After the end of apartheid, South Africa dismantled the six nuclear weapons it had secretly built and joined in 1991. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan gave up the Soviet weapons on their territory and joined as non-nuclear states. In May 1995 the parties agreed to extend the treaty indefinitely.

Gaps and challenges

The treaty has never been universal. India, Pakistan and Israel never signed; India and Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in 1998, and Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not confirm this. North Korea, which had joined in 1985, announced its withdrawal in 2003 and conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

Other parties were found to have violated their safeguards obligations, notably Iraq before 1991. Disputes over Iran’s nuclear programme have also been argued largely in NPT terms. Many non-nuclear states complain that the nuclear powers have been slow to meet their Article VI commitment, and the treaty has been criticised as dividing the world into nuclear “haves” and “have-nots”. Several review conferences have ended without an agreed final document.

How the treaty is enforced

The NPT has no enforcement body of its own. Verification of the non-proliferation promises is carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, which was founded in 1957. Each non-nuclear state must conclude a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, allowing inspectors to account for nuclear material and check that it is not diverted to weapons.

The discovery after the 1991 Gulf War that Iraq had pursued a secret weapons programme despite inspections exposed the limits of this system. In response, the IAEA developed the Additional Protocol in 1997, which gives inspectors wider access to information and sites. Many, but not all, parties have accepted it. Where serious violations are found, the IAEA can report them to the UN Security Council, which may impose sanctions.

Article X allows any party to withdraw from the treaty with three months’ notice if it decides that “extraordinary events” have jeopardised its supreme interests. North Korea is the only state to have used this clause, and the legal status of its withdrawal is still debated.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the NPT bans nuclear weapons. It does not. It allows the five recognised nuclear-weapon states to keep their arsenals while committing them to negotiate disarmament in good faith.
• Myth: the treaty forbids nuclear power. On the contrary, it explicitly protects the right of all parties to peaceful nuclear energy, provided their facilities are under safeguards.
• Fact: most states never wanted the bomb. Many countries that could have built nuclear weapons, such as Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and West Germany, chose not to, and the treaty gave that choice a lasting legal and political form.

Key people

• Frank Aiken, Irish foreign minister, the treaty’s early champion at the UN.
• Lyndon B. Johnson, US President, who made the treaty a priority and presided at the White House ceremony where Secretary of State Dean Rusk signed it for the United States on 1 July 1968.
• Alexei Kosygin, Soviet premier, whose government co-sponsored the final draft.
• William C. Foster, director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and chief American negotiator in Geneva.

Timeline

• 1961, 4 December: The UN General Assembly adopts the Irish Resolution.
• 1967, 24 August: The US and USSR present identical draft treaties in Geneva.
• 1968, 12 June: The UN General Assembly commends the treaty.
• 1968, 1 July: The NPT is opened for signature in London, Moscow and Washington.
• 1970, 5 March: The treaty enters into force.
• 1992: France and China accede.
• 1995, 11 May: The parties agree to extend the treaty indefinitely.
• 2003, January: North Korea announces its withdrawal.

Why it matters

The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons, and its bargain remains contested. Yet the world of the 2020s has nine nuclear-armed states rather than the dozens once feared, and the treaty’s norms, inspections and regular reviews are a large part of the reason. It remains the framework within which almost every debate about nuclear weapons takes place.