How Could the Current Non-Proliferation Regime Be Improved?

By March 2020, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which is
considered the key pillar of the current nuclear non-proliferation regime, had
been in force for fifty years. However, even though the NPT is the most
universal existing treaty, it faces several challenges, such as North Korea’s
withdrawal from the treaty in 2003, nuclear activities in Iran, Iraq and North
Korea, and the debate about the treaty text itself. In order to strengthen the
nuclear non-proliferation regime, this Note examines the current regime and
offers proposals for its improvements. It focuses on the most important
difficulties in the interpretation of the NPT text, the lack of authority and
capacity of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the
suitability of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in the regime.
While offering solutions for each of these issues, it can be seen that different
approaches, such as inter alia the amendment of the treaty text, or the
promotion of the universality of the Additional Protocol, can lead to an
improvement of the current nuclear non-proliferation regime. Those
improvements must be made to prevent a collapse of the non-proliferation
regime.