Newell Highsmith served in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State for thirty years prior to his retirement in 2017. He was responsible for legal issues related to nuclear nonproliferation for twenty-eight years as a staff attorney, assistant legal adviser, and deputy legal adviser. He worked directly on numerous sanctions cases, including the sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan after their nuclear tests in 1998. This article expresses his views and not those of the United States government.