ABSTRACT
Non-proliferation efforts have succeeded more often than they
have failed. Over the years many more states have given up nuclear-
weapons programmes than now possess or are developing them.1 According to Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares
Fund (a charitable foundation that focuses on nuclear-weapons
policy), in the 1960s 23 states had nuclear programmes, were
conducting weapons-related research or were actively discussing
the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Today only ten states have or are
believed to be seeking nuclear weapons and five of these are the
declared nuclear-weapons states (NWS) of the NPT. Before the
Treaty came into force, only six nations had abandoned nuclear-
weapons programmes that were under way or being considered.
