Unless conditions in the region change dramatically for the better, the creation of a WMD-free zone (WMDFZ) in the Middle East – an idea launched at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2010 – might prove a stillborn initiative. How can a meeting be convened in 2012, as stipulated by the 2010 NPT conference’s final document, “on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by the states of the region,” when many of those states are in turmoil, inter-state relations are strained, and the threat of conflict is mounting?