The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is regarded by many as the centerpiece of world security. It entered into force in 1970, and its success these past 37 years is rooted in a carefully crafted bargain. In exchange for a commitment from the non-nuclear weapon states (today some 180 nations) not to acquire nuclear weapons and to submit to international safeguards to verify compliance with this commitment, the five NPT nuclear weapon states (the US, Russia, Britain, France and China) pledged unfettered access to peaceful nuclear technologies and undertook to engage in nuclear disarmament negotiations aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals. This bargain has formed the central underpinnings of the international nonproliferation regime for over three decades.

A major problem today, however, is that the five nuclear weapon states have never really delivered on the nuclear disarmament part of this bargain, and it appears that the US has largely abandoned it, despite lip service to the contrary. And, today India, Pakistan and Israel maintain sizable unregulated nuclear weapon arsenals outside of the NPT, and North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and may have built several nuclear weapons by now.

Understanding the dimensions of the grand bargain that is central to the NPT is critical to a reasoned understanding of just what the nuclear weapon states agreed to undertake in Article VI of the NPT. A very helpful analysis of the NPT Article VI is contained in a paper by George Bunn and Roland M. Timerbaev entitled "Nuclear Disarmament: How Much Have the Five Nuclear Powers Promised in the Non-Proliferation Treaty," published in 1994 by "The Lawyers Alliance for World Security, the Committee for National Security and the Washington Council on Non-Proliferation." James F. Leonard, then the Director of the Washington Council on Non-Proliferation (which no longer exists), put together a helpful Appendix A for the pamphlet. A "Summary and Preface" by Gerard C. Smith (former ACDA Director) and Paul C. Warnke (former ACDA Director) appears before the Bunn-Timerbaev article. (ISBN No. 1-884179-01-0)

The negotiation of the NPT took from 1964 to 1968, and involved many participants. George Bunn was a member of the American delegation to the NPT negotiations and Roland Timerbaev was a member of the Soviet delegation. They got to know each other well and played an important role in the negotiations. Other members from both delegations also participated, and officials at home in the American and Soviet governments participated through drafting instructions to the two delegations. Periodically, these two governments made treaty drafts they had tentatively agreed upon available to representatives from other governments and asked for their support. The drafts were of course discussed at the Geneva Disarmament Conference and at the UN General Assembly. Thus, officials from many governments were involved in shaping the text."

The initial U.S.-Soviet draft of NPT language given to other governments after U.S.-Soviet negotiations did not contain language such as article VI calling for negotiations that would one day lead to nuclear disarmament. But both the Soviet Union and the United States had submitted to the Geneva Disarmament Conference (where much of the NPT was negotiated) separate plans for "general and complete disarmament" including staged reductions of nuclear weapons. As a result, non-nuclear-weapon-country representative at the Geneva Disarmament Conference insisted that, if the NPT was to contain a provision prohibiting them from acquiring nuclear weapons, it must also contain a provision calling for reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons by the five countries that then had nuclear weapons. Britain, China, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. Eventually, the Soviet Union and the United States (and their allies) agreed to Article VI which called for arms reductions and disarmament, including nuclear disarmament. This provision was welcomed by non-aligned representatives who had urged that the treaty contain such a provision."

[Click here to read a 19-page PDF of the 1994 article "Nuclear Disarmament: How Much Have the Five Nuclear Powers Promised in the Non-Proliferation Treaty?" by George Bunn and Roland M. Timerbaev (PDF)   Referenced by the article, but absent from this PDF version, are appendices setting out the text of the NPT and its parties.  Click here to read the NPT text provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (PDF) and click here to read a current list of NPT parties (broken up across multiple web pages) provided by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.]

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