Extending the NPT? A Critical Oral History of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference

Extending the NPT is a record of a conference conducted at the Erasmus University Rotterdam on 22-23 March, 2018 as a part of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project. The conference in Rotterdam was not a traditional academic conference, but followed a critical oral history (COH) methodology with discussion between academic experts on one side and policy veterans on the other. This conference aimed at shedding new light on the indefinite extension of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1995. Given the upcoming 25th anniversary of the indefinite extension, and the growing role that the legacy of the extension plays for the NPT politics today, revisiting what happened and how in 1995 was an attractive prospect. For this reason, the conference brought together the main participants in the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference (1995 NPTREC), including diplomats representing the most important countries present at the conference, as well as a small number of academics. The deliberations were supported by a collection of primary documents related to the 1995 NPTREC, collected in various archives in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Africa.