Negotiating the Impossible

4STRATEGIC AMBIGUITY

US–India Civil Nuclear Agreement

IN 1968, THE “TREATY on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” more commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), was negotiated into existence. The NPT was designed to restrict the number of countries that would have access to nuclear weapons to the five countries that had them at the time: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, and China. Not coincidentally, these were also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The long-term vision of the NPT was that signatories would commit (a) not to engage in proliferation activities, (b) to eventual disarmament among those who currently had nuclear weapons, (c) to supporting the peaceful ...