International Law Blog Postings

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT RevCon) being held at the UN headquarters in New York began without an agenda because member states could not reach agreement on which substantive issues to discuss and the rules of procedure. The treaty members could not even agree on whether to discuss the major events which have occurred since their last meeting: the first withdrawal from the treaty by a member state, the IAEA report on Iran's violations of the treaty, the uncovering of an international nuclear smuggling network, and the budget proposals by the United States Department of Defense to expand its armaments with "nuclear bunker buster" bombs. The only consensus seems to be a lack of political confidence in the effectiveness of the treaty, particularly in its ability to shield the world from nonproliferation and to legally bind nuclear weapon states to disarmament. The challenge of the month-long conference will be to achieve agreement on the larger task of reform. Continue Reading