Fifty-eight years later, the weapons are still here. There are around 12,000 of them and the numbers are increasing. The countries that promised to disarm are spending record sums, over $100 billion in 2024 alone, making them newer, faster and bigger. And this week, those same countries are gathered in New York for the NPT Review Conference, where they will reaffirm their commitment to a world without nuclear weapons.

The Cornerstone Report is ICAN’s new publication documenting how the nuclear-armed states and their allies have spent five decades performing compliance with the NPT while not actually implementing their agreements. The report also looks at what the majority of the world’s countries, the ones that have kept their side of the bargain, can do about it.

The report also reminds us that the security situation so often cited as a justification for inaction, now, was in many ways worse in the mid-1960s, and that actually inspired countries to negotiate the NPT as a means to stop the spread of weapons and to get rid of the existing arsenals. It spotlights the states that are attempting to reverse decades of determination to end the threat of nuclear weapons and are now the ones incentivising proliferation.

It also shows how the global majority of countries are on a different path. One that has the power to lead to the end of nuclear threats, permanently.

Florian Eblenkamp
ICAN Advocacy Coordinator