The U.S. Perspective on the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Every five years, the Parties to the (NPT) J. Stephen Adams, PhD and Mark W. Goodman, PhD U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, US hold a conference to review the operation of this Treaty with a view to assuring that the purposes of the Preamble and the provisions of the Treaty are being realized. The NPT represents a complex set of bargains among its nuclear-weapon State (NWS) and non-nuclear-weapon State (NNWS) Parties. Parties that possess nuclear weapons commit to a process of disarmament, parties that don't have nuclear weapons commit not to acquire them, and all NPT Parties enjoy the right to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This paper reviews the outcome of the 2015 Review Conference, with a particular focus on nuclear nonproliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.