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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Evaluate the failures of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
Sixty-five year later, the world still lives under the nuclear shadow.

These were the words spoken by the United Nations Secretary General, the Honourable, Ban Ki-moon during the opening of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference- 65 years after the first thermonuclear bomb was tested by the United States.

This quote introduces you to my historical investigation; which is to evaluate the failures of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Thus my area of investigation is on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, also known as the NPT, which is an international treaty that became international law in 1970. It aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. It also aims to achieve the goal of total nuclear disarmament. The treaty strives to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Some primary sources I will be using include the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As this is the area I am investigating, knowing the content of the treaty will be necessary to make a judgement on the effectiveness of the treaty.
As well as primary sources I also plan on using a variety of secondary sources. This includes a paper prepared for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission in Sweden written by Jim Walsh a lecturer at Harvard University. This source is incredibly reliable as it contains a large amount of references to various materials and provides a good overall view of the treaty as it explores both the successes and failures of the NPT.
Another secondary source I plan on using is an article written by Syed Zafar Medhi called ‘A farce called NPT’ published April this year on PRESSTV. This unofficial source points out the flaws in the wording of the treaty as well as the lack of progress since the establishment of the NPT. This article is written by Syed Zafar Mehdi, a journalist, activist and blogger based in New Delhi. It is published on

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