As an authoring agent of this world unifying treaty, the United State of America joined with Russia and Great Britain in signing this hope for the future on the first day of July 1968. With this great nation’s history of selective application and enforcement of numerous other treaties to which our Presidents have signed their name, it becomes feasible to ask if the United States has followe

Before the discussion begins in earnest, it is necessary to understand what the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entails to those countries that have acceded. With regard to the five Nuclear Weapon States, China, France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States, an agreement is made not to transfer any nuclear weapons technology or control of any nuclear weapon technology to any other state, even other Nuclear Weapon States. The remaining 182 parties to the treaty have agreed to not seek the development of nuclear weapons technology nor be the recipients of any such technology or its control. In addition, under Article VI, the Parties of the Treaty agree to seek total nuclear disarmament “at an early date (NPT)”.

As the Nuclear Weapons States begin the strategic placement of their new nuclear arsenal, is it hard to imagine a single warhead getting misplaced? Movies from the late 1990s played on this fear. Young adults may recall a scene from the 1996 movie “Broken Arrow” where a politician says that he does not know which makes him more afraid: that a nuclear weapon has been lost, or that it happens so often there is actually a name for it. In fact, according to the Brookings Institute’s 50 Facts about U.S. Nuclear Weapons, there have been eleven incidents in which nuclear weapons were lost and never recovered. In theory, it would only take one nuclear warhead to end this world. Suppose that “misplaced” warhead were actually stolen, like so many movies proffer, and sold to what the American government refers to as a “rogue state”, or worse, a terrorist cell. Such groups are not privy to reports such as the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review that outlines the United States response to attacks from any weapon of mass destruction, be it biological, chemical or nuclear. These groups only know what they want and that they have a means to achieve it. Now, just like in a movie, the world is unknowingly facing annihilation because of a single decision: the equivalent to “you can run but you can’t hide”.

Some topics in this essay:
Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, Posture Review, Matt Sarad, President Bush’s, Ellen Tauscher, Russia Britain, SORT Treaty, Security Policy, United Russia, nuclear weapons, non-proliferation treaty, nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear non-proliferation treaty, nuclear weapon, nuclear posture, posture review, nuclear posture review, five lone superpower, lone superpower, bush administration, united kingdom, russia united, nuclear weapons technology, test ban treaty,