The Nuclear Weapon States and the Humanitarian Campaign

Since the invention of nuclear weapons in 1945, there have been “ban the bomb” and nuclear disarmament movements in many countries. Both scientists and statesmen realized very early that nuclear war, especially on any large scale, would have catastrophic consequences for the planet and the human race. The 1946 Baruch Plan was an early failed effort to control and ban nuclear weapons. The steady buildup in nuclear weapons stockpiles in the U.S. and Soviet Union caused concern, but this was soon overshadowed by concerns about nuclear proliferation, as the UK got the bomb in 1952, France in 1960 and China in 1964, with several other states showing interest in following the same path. These concerns were met by the “grand bargain” in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, whose Article VI contains the promise by all the States-Parties “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.” Article IX divided the world into Nuclear-Weapon States (NWS)—the U.S., USSR, UK, France and China—which had the “right” (assumed to be temporary) to have nuclear weapons, and the Non-Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS) which gave up this possibility. Ever since, the international debate about nuclear disarmament, and especially the extent to which the promise in Article VI is being fulfilled, has come to a sharp focus at the 5-year NPT Review Conferences (Revcons). The most recent and one of the most contentious of these Revcons was held in New York April 27 to May 22 of this year.