The Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Treaty refers to an international treaty that its main objective is the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons technology and nuclear weapons. This is with an aim to promotion cooperation in the use of nuclear energy in peaceful ways and to achieve nuclear disarmament. It was signed 1968, and its enforcement started in 1970. The life of the Treaty was in 1995 extended indefinitely. As of date, the Treaty has been joined by 190 parties. This includes five nuclear-weapon states (Black-Branch, & Dieter, 22).
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957. It is a global organization seeking promotion of peaceful use of nuclear energy, prevent the use of nuclear energy for military purposes and apply safeguards at the request of member states to relevant nuclear-related activities. It has 167 members (Brown, & Jeffrey, 20).
Unites States of America
United States is one of the five nations recognized by the NPT as nuclear weapon states. Ii was signed by the U.S. on July 1, 1968. It was ratified by the U.S. President on March 5, 1970, and enforcement started on March 5, 1070 (Brown, & Jeffrey, 41).
North Korea
North Korea is a non-member of the NPT. On 12 December 1985, North Korea ratified the treaty. On 10 January 2003, however, it gave a notice of withdrawing from the treaty. This was following allegations from the United States that the roque state was enriching uranium for the purpose of making nuclear weapons. This resulted in the U.S. stopping fuel oil shipments to North Korea. On February 10, 2005, North Korea declared that it had nuclear weapons. It has since been testing its nuclear weapons which have brought wrath, especially from the U.S (Brown, & Jeffrey, 41).
South Africa
South Africa remains the only nation to have developed nuclear weapons by itself and then later dismantled the weapons. Unlike other nations such as Belarus and Kazakhstan, which inherited nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union, South Africa entered into NPT being a non-nuclear state. The NPT was signed by South Africa's ambassador to the U.S. in 1993. This was before South Africa gained its independence from colonialists (Brown, & Jeffrey, 43).
Libya
Libya signed and ratified the NPt. It was subject to safeguards inspections from IAEA when it was accused of undertaking a secret nuclear weapons program. This was in violation of the NPT obligations of a member state. In December 2003, however, the country agreed to terminate its weapons development programs. It allowed British and U.S. teams to visit Libya and assist the country in the elimination of WDP and verify completion (Bowen, & van Dassen, 7) (Brown, & Jeffrey, 45).
I am in full support of NPT and IAEA. Countries need to be constantly checked so that they cannot use nuclear energy to destroy humanity. This is made possible by having such treaties. The challenge that remains is to have member countries fully implement the obligations stipulated in the treaty.
This treaty affects my life and the planet. My life depends on being safe. If such a treaty was not in existence, maybe a roque state somewhere could have bombed us, and I could be dead. The planet as well is affected by such a treaty. The earth could not be safe if a treaty such as NPT that monitors use of nuclear energy were not in existence. The treaty is very important. The world's future depends on safety, and there can be no safety if the most lethal weapons on earth are not monitored. The United States has a lot of enemies. Its future depends on such enemies not developing the WDPs that could pose a danger to the U.S. This is only made possible by the NPT. Countries such as North Korea continue to pose a danger to the U.S. because they have declared that they are developing nuclear weapons, and they are not members of NPT. The only way that seems can stop them is through the application of sanctions and in extreme circumstances use of military interventions (Bagheri, 45).
Works Cited
Bagheri, Saeed. "Nuclear Disarmament in the Context of Npt." Available at SSRN (2016).
Black-Branch, Jonathan, and Dieter Fleck. Nuclear non-proliferation in international law. Asser Press, 2014.
Bowen, W., and L. van Dassen. "Nuclear Security and the Three Pillars of the NPT: Identifying a Lasting Relationship." International Conference on Nuclear Security: Enhancing Global Efforts. Proceedings of the Interational Conference. 2014.
Brown, Robert L., and Jeffrey M. Kaplow. "Talking peace, making weapons IAEA technical cooperation and nuclear proliferation." Journal of Conflict Resolution (2014): 0022002713509052.
