Punctuated Equilibrium in Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament

The goal of creating a world free of nuclear weapons was adopted by the international community in 1946. It was in the United Nations' (UN) first ever resolution that the member states of the UN called for the establishment of a Commission tasked with making proposals for "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction." A stable multilateral nuclear disarmament regime -- a framework of legally binding rights and responsibilities attached with a set of institutionalized diplomatic practices -- did not emerge until 1968, when the UN General Assembly adopted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which, in its Article VI, codifies an obligation to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament."