What is the purpose of the recent Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference?
The Conference is a once every five year opportunity to stabilize and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime. The Review Conference is tasked with evaluating how well the terms of the NPT have been implemented and to chart a path forward to tackle unfinished business. Expectations were extremely high going into the conference, but the positions of many of the nearly 190 participating countries were very far apart. States still found a way to constructively negotiate and find pragmatic approaches to defuse hot button issues such as North Korea’s withdrawal and nuclear testing, Iran’s noncompliance, prospects for a Middle East WMD Free Zone, and further progress on disarmament, any one of which could have scuttled the proceedings.
