On the eve of the seventh Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, George Bunn, one of the treaty's founding fathers, takes readers back in time to see how far we've gone since the NPT's inception and how far we still have to go if the non-proliferation regime is to survive. The treaty's greatest success is that only nine nations are believed to have nuclear weapons. "Without the NPT I believe 30-40 nations would have nuclear weapons," Bunn states. Nevertheless, he adds that the nuclear nonproliferation regime is under strain, as the international community tries to resolve the tension between the NPT's provision for nations' access to nuclear technologies and its imperative to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.