The first in our series exploring P5 perspectives on the forthcoming 2026 NPT Review Conference, Emmanuelle Maitre writes that for France, constructive participation in the RevCon will require delicate balancing. At the P5 level, preserving dialogue despite strong opposition remains a priority, but must not prevent calling out behaviours of concern related to the NPT.
In May, States Parties to the NPT will meet for the 11th Review Conference under difficult circumstances. While European support for and leadership in the NPT is more urgent than ever, it could be complicated by diverging priorities among European states. In the first of our commentary series exploring different European perspectives, YGLN member Federica Dall’Arche reflects on Italy’s perspective on the Treaty and its approach to the 2026 Review Conference. She writes that rather than focusing on ambitious normative breakthroughs, priority should be given to preserving the Treaty’s role as a stabilising framework.
President Trump’s recent statement about the US resumption of nuclear testing has heightened concerns over a renewed arms race and the erosion of the global norm against nuclear testing enshrined in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). This new policy brief from the ELN’s Protecting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty project argues that the CTBT reinforces the NPT by bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation norm and constraining the development of new nuclear warhead types: sustaining it is a strategic imperative. States Parties to the NPT must work together to strengthen the CTBT’s credibility and relevance to international security and prioritise collective multilateral action over short-term security gains.
The world today stands closer to nuclear catastrophe than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Conflicts involving nuclear-armed states could all too easily escalate to a nuclear confrontation, as global arms control treaties collapse. Steve Barwick, Chair of the Nuclear Education Trust, calls for the UK, as the chair of the group of five ‘official’ nuclear weapon states in the run-up to the 2026 NPT Review Conference, to reject nuclear sharing and prioritise transparency, reinvigorate global nuclear diplomacy, adopt a no-first-use policy, and engage with the TPNW.
The current debate around a possible resumption of nuclear testing introduces a new level of brinkmanship in an already fraught geopolitical climate. As the testing moratorium risks being weaponised for great-power competition, ELN Senior Policy Fellow Julia Berghofer writes that European states, including nuclear-armed ones, must speak with one voice and make clear that nuclear testing is unwise, unnecessary, and unwelcome.
In light of Putin’s recent offer of a voluntary, time-limited extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) obligations to the US, ELN Policy and Research Director Oliver Meier writes that US allies in Europe should seize this opportunity to help shape the outcome of deliberations about how to respond to Putin’s initiative.