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.
On 4th February, the New START Treaty – the last treaty constraining the nuclear weapons of the United States and Russia – expired. We now face the prospect that the half-century process of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world is about to be reversed. Although this situation appears bleak, Edward Ifft writes that there are constructive measures nuclear weapons states can take to reinforce global stability.
As State Parties prepare for the 2026 Review Conference, Bailey Schiff and Diya Ashtakala write that engaging with emerging technologies, which are already transforming military programmes, as well as verification and civilian nuclear programmes, offers a way to break entrenched debates. Revisiting longstanding challenges regarding non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear technology through the framework of emerging technologies may be one of the few practical paths to relieve pressure on the NPT by opening space for innovation and debate across the three pillars.
At the start of the new year, members of the European Leadership Network’s senior and younger-generation leaders’ networks offer their perspectives on their defining issue or policy trend to watch in 2026.
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 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.