How Non Nuclear Proliferation Could Have Been Abandoned.
During the thaw in the Cold War both sides took steps to try and reach an agreement about what should be done with the vast amounts of nuclear weapons each side possessed and they began to realize the danger that they posed to the world.
Over a period of time ranging from 1963 to 1979 tensions between the the US and the USSR dropped and relations improved which lead to a series of talks to protect and limit the spread and use of Nuclear weapons. Such as the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 , The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty of 1968, SALT I of 1972 and SALT II of 1979.
However The Nuclear Non proliferation Treaty is the focus of this article and the one which could have changed Nuclear proliferation for years to come.
During the creation of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty the 17 parties of the treaty met to discuss the agreements to put into the treaty and crucially how long the the Treaty should remain in action for. Most of the parties of the treaty were in favor of the treaty having no restrictions on how long the treaty could run for. However not every party felt this way.
Three parties however disapproved of this idea. The parties who were against this motion were Germany, Sweden and Italy who all argued for treaty with of a set period of time.This was influenced by the fact that the Cold War was at it highest tensions during this period of time.That and the fact that no one knew if the treaty would work or how many parties would agree to it and these countries wanted the opportunity to revert to nuclear options if it was needed later on in the Cold War. As well as these problems countries were worried that they may be at a commercial disadvantage due to the International Atomic Energy Agency verifying if that country can provide Nuclear products for peaceful purposes which had the overall say if that country could provide these products to other countries.
These countries sparked a change in Article X.2 which states that, “ Twenty Five years after entry into force of the Treaty, a conference shall be convened to decide whether the Treaty shall continue in force indefinitely, or shall be extended for an additional fixed period or periods. This decision shall be taken by a majority of the Parties to the Treaty.”
However the treaty also states that only one extension from when the treaty is in effect can be granted. Which created the situation that after the 1995 conference to decide how long the extension to the treaty could be. Therefore if any further extension was needed to the treaty in order for it to happen would have to be done via amendment to the treaty which requires legislatures. However the treaty's views on amendments made trying to amend the treaty extremely hard.The 1995 conference was the only opportunity that the world had to make this treaty a permanent treaty like other conventional weapon treaty's . If not nations who once had a stable government that had developed nuclear weapons as a deterrent could have lost power to a more radical group of people who intend to use nuclear weapons without a thought about the repercussions.
In the years leading up to the 1995 conference the future of Nuclear Proliferation hanged in the balance. With so much responsibility resting on this conference everything had to be planed so that the maximum amount of parties of the Treaty could attend which involved moving it from the United nations headquarters in Geneva to the United nations headquarters in New York as more countries had diplomatic bases there than in Geneva.However this also affected the support for the indefinite extension of the treaty with Switzerland reluctant to support this action because they felt that a “narrow majority may be decisive.” Which shows us that unwillingness to support the motion of indefinite extension was tied in with not holding the conference in there home country.
The struggle for indefinite extension was a long one in the years leading up to the conference the US government spent a huge amount of time and effort promoting Indefinite extension for the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. Which fortunately payed off.
On the 11th of May 1995 the treaty was extended indefinitely. To this day there are 191 parties of the treaty and there are only five nuclear weapon states to date which are;China,USA,France,Russian(USSR)and Britain. and three Nuclear Capable states; India,Pakistan and Israel. To this day we live in a world where Nuclear proliferation has been controlled. Phew!
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