ABSTRACT
Among the drafters of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) from 1958 to 1968, those from neutral and nonaligned nations were among the most ambivalent. The globalization of nuclear science, technology, engineering, and commodities brought atomic arms within reach of states outside of the superpower blocs, calling into question the compatibility of neutrality and nonalignment with the possession of nuclear arsenals. This chapter makes a set of interlocking claims about how nuclear proliferation to neutral and nonaligned countries, especially those in the Middle East and Asia, motivated the search for global nuclear order, and how these countries shaped in turn a global nuclear nonproliferation regime reflective of their interests and worldviews. The “nuclear restriction” proposal introduced by the neutral Republic of Ireland in September 1958 drew on earlier plans to defuse “flash points” where US-Soviet interests volatized local territorial disputes. The Irish Resolution in turn set in motion United States, Soviet, and Indian efforts to delegitimize the People’s Republic of China’s nuclear test in October 1964, as well as neutral and nonaligned initiatives at the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament and the United Nations General Assembly to condition a nonproliferation agreement on peaceful nuclear development, universal security assurances, and meaningful arms control. The result was an NPT that countervailed discriminatory features with those that would complement rather than compromise neutrality under the United Nations Charter, with imperfect results.
