ABSTRACT
Successful negotiation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968, and its entry into force in 1970, fixed in place a prime reference point for denuclearization. Two authoritative interpretations of NPT Article VI cut through questions about its meaning, confirming a reasonable reading that the text is a binding commitment to denuclearization. An unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament to which all states parties are committed under Article VI, which makes the matter perfectly clear. The NPT has become the focus of the state and civil society coalition advocating abolition because there is no other near-universal body of authorized government representatives with an explicitly nuclear mandate. The strength of the NPT Review Conference is also its weakness: it is a gathering of States subject to a political requirement of unanimity, or near-unanimity.
