For the NPT Monitor, the methodology developed by the BASIC NPT Monitor team prioritises a rigorous and objective approach – providing evidence-based information, rather than analysis.
The NPT Monitor assesses implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons by States Parties, based on criteria in the 2010 64 Point Action Plan. The Action Plan was chosen on the basis that it is the last consensus-based agreement by the NPT States Parties for obligations and commitments to implement the treaty. The NPT Monitor will provide information on every ‘action’ in the Action Plan, but those currently available were selected following feedback from States Parties about which action areas were under particular focus at the moment, ahead of the upcoming Review Conference.
We identified a four-part typology through which the NPT Monitor website was designed:
1) Legal obligations of the Treaty through the ‘Three Pillars’ (Disarmament, Non-Proliferation, and Peaceful Uses) and associated articles of the treaty.
2) These three pillars are linked to the associated actions from the 2010 64 Point Action Plan. For example, the Disarmament Pillar is linked to Actions 1 to 22.
3) For each of these actions, the NPT Monitor provides information and data on what each State Party has done – before and during the current Review Cycle, to offer insights on implementation. In this first iteration, we have decided to focus solely on nuclear-weapon states.
4) This information is gathered through independent expert research, who are asked to provide three specific sets of information (further detail below).
The data available on the website is collated through consultation with selected ‘Country Experts’. These Country experts are nationals of their respective Country, and have native-language ability, for example, the data for France was collated by a French national (native speaker) who is an expert on nuclear issues, and more specifically, the NPT. This is intended so that the country experts are able to access native-language documents, statements, and data, and also approach their respective country’s government directly to obtain information relevant to the Monitor.
We ask our country experts to collect information and data, sectioned by 3 questions, applied for every action:
- Please provide information and data on implementation of Action [#] by your NWS prior to the current Review Cycle
- Please provide information and data on the implementation of Action [#] by your NWS during the current Review Cycle (2022 – 2026)
- Please provide a clear list of any sources you have cited/used to provide the information above.
The experts are expected to use primary sources (e.g. official reports to the NPT, official documents from different sections of government administration, and available interviews with officials). In any cases where primary sources are vague, imprecise, or unavailable, the experts complement their findings with secondary sources. The experts provide the sources used for each of the entries in their data submission.
The experts are provided with indicative indications of possible measurement indicators that can be used in any cases where the Action Plan components require quantitative inputs.
The country experts’ findings go through a process of anonymous peer review, by another selected expert, and once any revisions or edits are made upon the suggestion of the peer review, the data and information is uploaded to the NPT Monitor website.
The Monitor also includes a Thematic Database, which organises every working paper submitted as part of each conference throughout an NPT Review Cycle across themes. The categories of ‘themes’ were identified by the BASIC NPT Monitor team. They were identified based on key words in the titles of each working paper, for example, a working paper titled ‘France and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: an exemplary nuclear-weapon State supporting a unique tool in the disarmament and non-proliferation architecture’ would fall under the following identified themes: France, CTBT, disarmament, non-proliferation, and disarmament and non-proliferation architecture. Therefore, any working papers whose titles include identical language that fall under these themes, are grouped together respectively, organised across years (conferences) in which the papers were submitted.