Description

The following report serves as a handbook on the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference for participants in the course International Security in a Changing World (POLS 114S/HIST 104D) at Stanford University, originally designed and taught by Joe Felter, Scott D. Sagan, and Harold Trinkunas.

The structure of this handbook is twofold. First, we review important background information about the NPT Review Conference including a history of the Conferences since 1975, the organizational structure, key delegations, and coalitions of the conference. Second, we provide our recommendations on how the instructors may best execute a simulation of the NPT Review Conference with careful attention paid to student roles, assignments, negotiation issues, and educational goals.

The simulation starts with a one hour session in which the delegations make formal presentations to their Heads of State. The conference takes place over the course of two eight hour days.

Learning Objectives

• Students will gain familiarity with the structure of the NPT and of international negotiations more generally. They will have the opportunity to debate in public and negotiate in private, understanding the tension between a state’s international image and strategic interests. Students will also get the opportunity to conduct significant amounts of background research and submit memos to their “heads of state” to put them in the shoes of a policymaker with a specific topical portfolio acting under the aegis of a country.