ABSTRACT
More than 40 years ago, the first test of a nuclear explosive at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on 16 July 1945 demonstrated a new weapon of unprecedented destructiveness. Throughout the ensuing decades, the community of nations has wrestled with the problem of controlling the military threat of nuclear energy while harnessing the atom for peaceful purposes. Since its entry into force in March 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has been an essential part of the decades-long endeavour. The treaty’s specific undertakings have been carefully crafted to serve its three major objectives: preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons, fostering peaceful nuclear co-operation under safeguards, and good faith negotiations on the cessation of the nuclear arms race with a view to general and complete disarmament. A vision of the atom as a potential promise to help countries meet their various needs in the fields of health care, medicine, science, industry and agriculture also influenced the creation of the NPT.
