NPT 2010-2015: the way forward

Abstract

The action plan agreed during the last Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May 2010 strengthened the voice of those who believe that the NPT is the most effective multilateral path towards global nuclear disarmament. The ratification of New START, the US-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty which came into effect in February 2011, is another positive development on this path, but there is still a long and essential road ahead, particularly in the Middle East. Success at the 2015 Review Conference, and thereby the future of the whole nonproliferation regime itself, is increasingly contingent on achieving genuine progress on two key issues: progress by the Nuclear Weapon States toward meeting the commitments they undertook in 2010; and the clear and credible commitment on the part of participants—including from the region—to the forthcoming 2012 conference to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. The 2010 NPT Review Conference reconfirmed that without good-faith progress on these two issues, member states will continue to be increasingly resistant to calls for tighter restrictions on the transfer and use of nuclear technology to increase confidence in the nonproliferation regime, or to attempts to strengthen measures against non-compliance and withdrawal .