The NPT: Reaching Critical Will

Thirty five years after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force, nuclear weapons
remain a profound threat to our future as a species. Despite the promise made by the original nuclear weapons
states in Article VI of the Treaty to negotiate for the elimination of their nuclear arsenals, tens of thousands of
nuclear weapons remain.

The current U.S. nuclear stockpile is estimated at over 10,000 warheads. Of these, approximately 5,300 are operational, including 4,350 strategic and 780 non-strategic warheads. A significant number of these stand ready for use within minutes, capable of wreaking unimaginable destruction anywhere on earth.

Nonetheless, the United States claims that it is “is fully meeting its obligations under Article VI,”
pointing to the deactivation of excess Cold War nuclear weapons and delivery systems. This stance ignores 2
the irrational factors that drove Cold War superpower arsenals to extreme and unsustainable levels, and downplays the central role that nuclear weapons continue to play in the U.S. pursuit of global military dominance.

Contrary to its 1970 NPT Article VI commitment to negotiate the “cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date,” the United States continues to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems with new capabilities. Advances in a wide range of missile, computing, and space sensing technologies allow either conventional or nuclear weapons to be delivered over great distances with increasing accuracy.

This may allow the United States to substitute conventional weapons for nuclear weapons to achieve some military goals, but it is clear that the U.S. intends to retain a large and constantly modernized nuclear arsenal for the foreseeable future.
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Reaching for a Critical Mass of Political Will for Nuclear Disarmament includes:

•Reporting
•Negative Security Assurances
•Verification
•Nuclear Energy
•Non-strategic (tactical) Nuclear Weapons
•A Nuclear Weapons Convention
•The Organization to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons
•Nuclear Weapons Free Zones
•NGO participation

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