ity architecture painstakingly constructed by the international community may collapse.
The NPT serves two mutually reinforcing aims: nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. It does this by balancing positive and negative rights and obligations. It is at once an agreement to forgo nuclear weapons; an agreement to put peaceful nuclear facilities under international safeguards; an undertaking to end the arms race and pursue nuclear disarmament; and an agreement promoting access to technical cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Many Americans are vaguely aware that there are mechanisms in place to control the spread of nuclear weapons, though it is not clear that these mechanisms are understood by the public. Indeed, it has been found that there is little consensus in the post-Cold War world as to what constitutes America's vital interests and thus as to what sorts of policies should be implemented in matters of nuclear proliferation as in other foreign policy issues. The Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press in a 1
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