Roadblocks to Disarmament in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty System

Abstract

For the last five decades, the states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have come together every 5 years at Review Conferences to explore how they can advance the Treaty’s goals, including the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. Despite lengthy negotiations, the Review Conferences have failed to reach a consensus final document as many times as they have succeeded and even when a final document has been agreed it has contained few tangible gains for those working towards a nuclear weapon free world. This state of affairs played out again in 2022 when the NPT’s 10th Review Conference ended without agreement and with many states decrying the weakness of the disarmament provisions that had been under discussion. It has been common in the aftermath of Review Conferences for academics to consider the contemporary political issues that stymied progress. While such studies are important, it is also necessary to consider what deeper structural issues may be at play in preventing the goal of nuclear disarmament from being advanced in the NPT context. To this end, this article identifies and analyses three key structural issues with the NPT and NPT Review Conferences that create difficulties for those pursuing a nuclear disarmament agenda. First, it explores issues with the scope and content of Article VI and how it has been interpreted by the nuclear weapon states. Secondly, it looks at the difficulties that arise from the commitment to achieving consensus outcomes at the Review Conferences and, thirdly, it considers the limitations of who actually attends and contributes to Review Conferences.