European perspectives on the Non - Proliferation Treaty : Ireland | European Leadership Network

europeanleadershipnetwork.org · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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In May 2026, States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will meet for the 11th Review Conference under exceptionally difficult circumstances. The war in Ukraine continues, the proliferation crisis surrounding Iran has deepened, debates on renewed nuclear testing and reversed disarmament have resurfaced, and transatlantic relations are strained, including over the territorial integrity of Greenland. In these times, European support for and leadership in the NPT are more urgent than ever – yet they may be complicated by diverging priorities among European states. This commentary series explores different European perspectives on the Treaty and the 2026 Review Conference, with a view to identifying shared challenges and opportunities to enhance cooperation across Europe. This week, Ciarán Doyle reflects on Ireland’s perspective on the NPT and its approach to the 2026 NPT Review Conference. Almost 70 years have passed since Irish Foreign Minister Frank Aiken introduced the first of the “Irish resolutions” at the UN’s First Committee. 10 years later, in 1968, those initial efforts would be consolidated as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), with Ireland as its inaugural signatory. Aiken was a freedom fighter and a revolutionary – he subsequently fought through a bitter and bloody civil war and helped to steer a fledgling Irish state to a nervous peace. He was a man who intimately knew the meaning of violence, and he understood the heavy price for Ireland’s independence. He also fundamentally grasped the opportunity provided to his young state by the newfound freedom from empire, and the international role that a small state like Ireland, still enjoying its early decades of independence on the world stage, could now play in working to broker détente between superpowers in an emerging multilateral order. The pursuit of nuclear non-proliferation, both for Ireland and for Aiken, was the pragmatic pursuit of peace – and one fundamentally driven by political vision and will. 58 years since Ireland first signed the NPT, the remaining survivors of the only conflict that saw hundreds of thousands perish in nuclear explosions are now few. We are losing the memories of those, the Hibakusha, who still bear the brutal scars of the atomic bomb – who best understand the price of that peace in suffering that echoes through generations. And while WWII and the legacy of Aiken and his time recede from us, we cannot afford to lose sight of the stakes – and the vision – that brought the NPT into being. That is especially important at this fragile and deeply uncertain moment for our world and its multilateral foundations. No matter what comes next, we need the NPT to endure with an integrity fit for this century. Reflecting on the importance of the 2026 NPT Review Conference, it is clear to Ireland that the NPT has made an indispensable contribution to global peace and security for over half a century. We regularly repeat the mantra that it is the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime, but it is more than that; it has been one of the few fundamentally stabilising forces, both during and after the Cold War, for global geopolitics writ large. Since the NPT entered into force in 1970, four more states – India, Pakistan, Israel and the DPRK –have regrettably acquired nuclear weapons and tested them. Yet it remains only four, and it would surely be far more without the NPT’s normative power guarding against the normalisation of nuclear proliferation. The outlook for this year’s Review Conference is inescapably challenging. Russia’s unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine has now endured longer than its involvement in WWII, while political instability in the Middle East maintains a worrying nuclear dynamic, with one unsafeguarded nuclear-armed state and another in breach of IAEA safeguards, engaged in open warfare. The taboo against threatening other states with nuclear weapons has been weakened on multiple continents, while the last remaining bilateral arms control agreement between the holders of the two largest nuclear arsenals has now expired. Reflecting specifically on the disarmament commitments enshrined in the Treaty’s Article VI, the end of history – and by extension, the elimination of nuclear weapons – did not happen in 1989. We now face a world menaced once more by novel nuclear weapon delivery vehicles, the wholesale modernisation of arsenals, alongside the rapid and opaque expansion of certain stockpiles. On multiple fronts, our commitments to a nuclear-weapon-free world, which were laid down in the 1970s, are in rapid retreat in the 2020s. The elimination of nuclear weapons, to which all NPT states parties have committed, looks further away than ever. Ireland is realistic about the prospects for agreement this year. We should not overburden the Review Conference with assumptions for wholesale transformation at a time of global rupture. States Parties, however, rightly demand a clear signal of intent – and we demand leadership, in particular from the nuclear weapon states. As Frank Aiken showed in the 1950s, it takes a clear vision and a strategy from our political leaders – along with the tenacity to implement it – to forge an enduring regime. This should come from states both small and large this year. The value of multilateralism is that all states can play a meaningful part. As a small, militarily neutral country, a functioning global multilateral system with the UN Charter at its heart, is one of Ireland’s greatest security assets. It speaks to our values, and it speaks to our interests. Just as it did in the ashes of WWII, that for Ireland still means building trust, finding common ground, and negotiating compromises within a rules-based multilateral architecture. Rest assured, Ireland will spare no effort to continue this work at the NPT Review Conference this year. As a small, militarily neutral country, a functioning global multilateral system with the UN Charter at its heart, is one of Ireland’s greatest security assets. Ciarán Doyle The maintenance of the NPT and its longevity have not been achieved through political passivity. In previous instances of challenge and crisis, States Parties – and their leaders – have shown such ingenuity, flexibility, and adaptability to ensure the Treaty endures. That has included successfully finding common ground and, on three occasions, concluding agreements on a backwards-looking outcome document. In other instances, Review Conferences have reached decisions to indefinitely extend the Treaty, the Action Plan of 2010, and, before that, the 13 practical steps, among other achievements. Consensus has therefore taken many creative forms to preserve the integrity of the Treaty over that time. For the endurance of the regime, it will have to do so again. For many, including Ireland, a commitment to enhanced transparency and accountability from the nuclear weapon states is within reach this year. The demands from States Parties are modest, but they are universal – that we can all see the reports of nuclear weapon states’ efforts to implement their Article VI commitments and obligations on disarmament, so we can meaningfully compare those actions and engage each in dialogue. It is something to which all have previously committed, and we will ask them to do so again, but this time, to act on it. Ireland will play its part by once again submitting our own comprehensive report as a non-nuclear weapon state. We intend to continue our track record as an effective and pragmatic actor in the even-handed pursuit of nuclear disarmament, an essential step toward global peace. Ciarán Doyle As our predecessors did almost 70 years ago, Ireland’s delegation will continue to assume a role as an honest broker and a committed champion of multilateralism. We intend to continue our track record as an effective and pragmatic actor in the even-handed pursuit of nuclear disarmament, an essential step toward global peace. While our world faces many challenges, increasing threats to regional security are principally among them. No global security challenge in any region will be made easier by increasing the risk of disaster through nuclear rearmament. What was true in 1968 remains imperative today – we must make “every effort to avert the danger of [nuclear] war and to take measures to safeguard the security of peoples.” We urge all states to work with us in that effort in New York this April and May. Mr Doyle wrote this commentary in an official capacity as a diplomat from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the authors rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes. Image credit: Wikimedia commons, European Union https://newsroom.consilium.europa.eu/events/20250306-special-european-council-march-2025