Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime Research Articles

The April 1977 Persepolis Conference on the Transfer of Nuclear Technology: A Third World Revolt Against US Non-Proliferation Policy?

ABSTRACTIran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi embarked on one of the most ambitious nuclear programmes of any state in the 1970s. This decision was in part motivated by the zeitgeist surrounding nuclear energy in the 1970s that envisioned the transition from a petroleum- to plutonium-based economy. This decision, however, was soon followed by the Indian ‘Smiling Buddha’ peaceful nuclear explosion. This led the United States and other nuclear suppliers to strengthen restraints on nuclear exports. Many nuclear recipients, particularly in the Third World, objected to US-led changes to the nuclear non-proliferation regime, including the creation of the London Club (later renamed the Nuclear Suppliers Group). To address perceived shortcomings of nuclear suppliers in cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear technology, the Iranian nuclear leadership organized the Iran Conference on the Transfer of Nuclear Technology in April 1977. The Persepolis conference, as it came to be known, saw many nuclear suppliers, recipients and industry rally in opposition to US non-proliferation policy under President Jimmy Carter. However, following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran ceased to function as the lynchpin of this opposition to US policy, with the result that the coalition created at the Persepolis conference dissipated.

Behind the veil of good intentions: power analysis of the nuclear non-proliferation regime

Susan Strange argued that one of the main problems with the use of the concept of regime in IR is the way in which it ‘distort[s] reality implying an exaggerated measure of predictability and order in the system’. Instead, she claimed, scholars should look at the numerous and dynamic bargains on which regimes are based. This article examines four bargains displaying various operations of power that have underpinned the nuclear non-proliferation regime. The four bargains are: first, the superpower collusion in the establishment of the non-proliferation treaty; second, coercive diplomacy and the use of force in preventing access to nuclear materials and technology; third, institutional contestation regarding the aims of the non-proliferation regime and its technical maintenance; and fourth, the creation of particular hierarchies of states via the non-proliferation norm. These bargains have been hidden behind the veil of good intensions, which is the conviction that preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is an unquestionable global good. The veil of good intentions, in turn, has helped to maintain the unequal distribution of material capabilities at the heart of the non-proliferation regime.

Civil Nuclear Deal with the US: Prospects for Pakistan

Pakistan has emerged as a responsible nuclear weapon state by developing strong credentials in the fields of nuclear safety, security, stability, and has developed a stringent strategic export control system. Pakistan has not only fulfilled its national obligation of safeguarding its national security objectives vis-à-vis India, but it has been also fulfilling its international obligations, to win the trust of the international community. To strengthen its nuclear credentials further, Pakistan wanted to become an effective part of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime (NNPR). The international community, including the US, appreciates Pakistan’s nuclear safety and security standards. One of the important aspects of Pakistan’s credentials is its safe-operational experience of handling peaceful nuclear technology for over 40 years. According to its Energy Vision 2050, Pakistan has established an ambitious plan to develop 40,000 MWe through nuclear power. For that purpose it has been seeking international support and cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear technology to meet its growing energy demands. Like the Indo-US nuclear deal, Pakistan has also been looking for a similar deal with the US. It has also been seeking a non-discriminatory and criteria-based membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), to do a legitimate verifiable peaceful nuclear trade with the advanced nuclear states. With this premise, this research paper is aimed at exploring the questions that why a Pak-US civil nuclear deal is significant for Pakistan? How the US has, so far, responded to the Pakistan’s demand of a nuclear deal? And what are the prospects of a Pak-US civil nuclear deal.

Трансформация глобального миропорядка: динамика системных изменений

The author considers the global changes to be an intrinsic part of the continuing formation of a new international political system, which is replacing the classical bipolarity; thereby, he opposes the approaches that describe the global changes as a process of destruction of the previous world order and the entry into an unstable era of the universal collapse of the “game by the rules”. The author pays particular attention to an in-depth analysis of the current configuration of the international system, as well as to various scenarios of its development, such as: the revival of the unipolar world order or some kind of “new bipolarity”; slipping down to chaos; recreation of the “concert of nations” or multipolarity as a fundamentally new global configuration of power. The article analyzes the dynamics of the global centers of development, the corresponding downward and upward trends, the transformation of geopolitical space, and formation of the new actors of the global politics. Upon studying the structural shifts in the transforming inner hierarchy of the international system (including the expansion of the pool of countries aspiring to the core of the world international political system), the author concludes that a new configuration and a new balance of power are taking their shape on the global and the regional level. The author sees the global balance of this emerging new global hierarchy, in the context of virtually inevitable new global cleavages, as one of the key challenges facing the world community. In this framework, crucial role is played by the existing and newly built mechanisms and formats of the global regulation. In conclusion, the author discusses the most acute problems of international political development, namely provision of the global security, the nuclear nonproliferation regime, the mechanisms for containing transboundary use of force, the country status of territories, as well as sets forth the task and criteria for achieving a mature world order.

Modification of legal system of the nuclear export and import control to implement nuclear security regime as well as nuclear nonproliferation regime

Modification of legal system of the nuclear export and import control to implement nuclear security regime as well as nuclear nonproliferation regime

India and the Global Order

The international regimes which create a global order regulate a multitude of actions and relations between states with respect to global public goods. In this context, the rise of the emerging powers like India draws attention to how such countries will navigate the global order in the coming years. Will emerging powers support a liberal order or seek to reinvent the order as they become economically and politically more powerful? This article seeks to examine such issues by looking at the regimes and global order from the prism of a rising India. A robust growing economy has added to India’s economic and political power as it seeks to expand its role within the global order. Socialization and a buy into the current liberal order imply that India will strive to sustain the existing global order since it has benefited from it. Simultaneously, India challenges the rules of the global order by seeking change to the existing status quo in various institutions such as the nuclear non-proliferation regime, which has been examined more specifically in this article. As globalization and interdependence reshape alignments, India’s role and position reflect how it negotiates global regimes and the global order.

Narratives of Engagement in us–India Relations: A Look Back at the us–India 123 Agreement Debate

This article presents a rhetorical critique of diplomatic and public discourse that emanated from a joint commitment of the United States and India to pursue full civilian nuclear cooperation. The article argues that four narratives combined to transform the us–India relationship from estrangement to engagement. The narratives of exceptionalism, kinship, sojourning and convergence changed perspectives on the context, social order and substance of the us–India relationship, effectuating India’s movement from outside to inside the nuclear non-proliferation regime, and constituting the United States and India as strategic partners.

Book Review: A. Vinod Kumar, India and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime: The Perennial Outlier

A. Vinod Kumar, India and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime: The Perennial Outlier. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. 2014. 233 pages. ₹795.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime as a “Ceasefire Line”: Compromises of Conflicting Norms and the Double Standard Debate

Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime as a “Ceasefire Line”: Compromises of Conflicting Norms and the Double Standard Debate

В КАКОЙ РЕФОРМЕ НУЖДАЕТСЯ СОВЕТ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ ООН?

The article addresses key aspects of the UN Security Council (UNSC) adaptation to the 21st century realities. The author argues that the scale and diversity of major challenges to the world strategic stability in the foreseeable future are such that nations can cope with them successfully only by acting together and taking full advantage of the UNSC facilities to manage global processes. The survival and sustainable development of a polycentric world require maintaining and upgrading the UNSC proficiency, expanding collaboration between the major powers in this format, on the basis of international law. The need is stressed to do away with the under-representation of the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the UN Security Council and meet their reasonable demands for membership in the UNSC on a permanent basis. At the same time, the author emphasizes that in its existing format, the UNSC is a viable UN body, its potential is far from being exhausted. It is a unique security resource, although undervalued and underutilized by the international community. The Council possesses sufficient legal authority to enforce peace, as well as essential experience and an extensive international security agenda. Its mechanisms are quite capable of withstanding a heavier load if the unity of the leading world powers prevails. They should reaffirm their commitment to the UN Charter and agree to operate in conformity with international law. Appropriate resources and effective UNSC operational enforcement facilities are required to withstand growing security challenges, particularly those emanating from international terrorism, religious fanaticism, violent extremism, xenophobia as well as the WMD proliferation. A number of measures are suggested to strengthen the central coordinating role of the UN Security Council in managing international risks and improve the functioning of its mechanisms. The author concludes that by taking full advantage of the UNSC enforcement potential the international community can соре with existing and impending threats to the world order and make breakthroughs in a number of critical security areas (countering global terrorism, strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime, peace-making, enhancing the UN enforcement potential).

Nuclear arbitration

At the core of the nuclear non-proliferation regime lie international agreements. These agreements include, inter alia, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, nuclear co-operation agreements and nuclear export control agreements.1 States, however, do not always comply with their obligations under these agreements. In response, commentators have proposed various enforcement mechanisms to promote compliance.2 The inconvenient truth, however, is that states are generally unwilling to consent to enforcement mechanisms concerning issues as critical to national security as nuclear non-proliferation.

Collusion and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime

We present a theory of the origins and enforcement of the nuclear nonproliferation regime based on a game-theoretic model of proliferation. The theory synthesizes the popular, but incomplete, views of the regime as a grand bargain or a cartel. Widespread nonproliferation is only possible if the superpowers collude to coerce some states into compliance, as in the cartel, but this enforcement is only affordable if most states voluntarily comply under a grand bargain. This collusion arises from the superpowers’ early experience of proliferation and its disruptive effects on intra-alliance politics. We document collusion in the negotiation and enforcement of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and find support for the theory’s predictions in a data set of superpower reactions to states’ failure to join or comply with the NPT. Our theory implies that the regime has substantially reduced proliferation, in contrast to previous studies’ findings.

The development of the international initiative on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and its effect on the nuclear weapons debate

AbstractThis article describes the genesis of the humanitarian initiative and the political context in which it has developed in the course of the joint cross-regional statements and the three international conferences on this issue in Norway, Mexico and Austria. It examines the key substantive conclusions that have emerged as a result of this debate and assesses their relevance for the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. It concludes that these facts and findings warrant an urgent reassessment of the so-called security value of nuclear weapons and a nuclear deterrence-based notion of stability and security.

Nonproliferation treaty talks end in acrimony

Issues of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament take a back seat to a Middle East regional nuclear-free zone.

State behavior and the nuclear nonproliferation regime

This is the first book-length study of why states sometimes ignore, oppose, or undermine elements of the nuclear nonproliferation regime--even as they formally support it. Anchored by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the nuclear nonproliferation regime is the constellation of agreements, initiatives, and norms that work in concert to regulate nuclear material and technology. The essays gathered here show that attitudes on nonproliferation depend on a complex, contingent decision calculus, as states continually gauge how their actions within the regime will affect trade, regional standing, and other interests vital to any nation. The first four essays take theoretical approaches to such topics as a framework for understanding challenges to collective action; clandestine proliferation under the Bush and Obama administrations and its impact on regime legitimacy; threat construction as a lens through which to view resistance to nonproliferation measures; and the debate over the relationship between nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. Essays comprising the second part of the book use regional and state-specific case studies to look at how U.S. security guarantees affect the willingness of states to support the regime; question the perceived spoiler role of a vocal minority within the Non-Aligned Movement; challenge notions that Russia is using the regime to build a coalition hostile to the United States; contrast nonproliferation strategies among Latin American countries; and explain the lag in adoption of an Additional Protocol by some Middle East and North African countries. Getting countries to co-operate on nonproliferation efforts is an ongoing challenge. These essays show that success must be measured not only by how many states join the effort but also by how they participate once they join.

Reviving Nuclear Ethics: A Renewed Research Agenda for the Twenty-First Century

A revival and renewal of the literature of nuclear ethics is called for given the continued threat posed by nuclear weapons and sensitive nuclear technologies and materials. After building some historical context for making such a call, the paper proceeds to start the conversation about the ethics of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and the problem of liberal democracies which possess nuclear weapons.

The Role of Justice in Compliance Behavior: Germany’s Early Membership in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime

Compliance is a central concept in both the study and practice of international relations, and the body of literature is correspondingly extensive. Although justice has already been shown to play an important role in international negotiations, its potential impact on actors’ compliance behavior has not been sufficiently explored to date. We examine the relationship between the two concepts, and posit that actors’ perceived justice considerations with a regime influence their compliance behavior. To illustrate the importance of including justice considerations in the study of compliance, we investigate Germany’s behavior as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty during the 1960–80s. The empirical illustration exemplifies how a member’s justice contentions, borne of an unjust regime, can lead to contested compliance and regime conflict. The case illuminates the need to broaden our understanding of compliance and its complexity in both conceptual and practical terms.

The exception to the rule? The EU and India's challenge to the non-proliferation norm

Norm challenge is a continuous feature of international norms. However, the dynamics of such a challenge are still not properly understood. Therefore, this article examines in-depth the key processes involved in a major, but still underexplored challenge in the case of the nuclear non-proliferation regime: the recent accommodation of India in the regime, even though it developed nuclear weapons in violation of the regime's fundamental non-proliferation norm. More specifically, it will focus on how certain states came about to support such a norm challenge. In this regard, the European Union and its member states played a crucial role, as they included both very supportive and very reluctant states that all had the opportunity to block India's accommodation in the regime. In contrast to the traditional focus on persuasion and argumentation in the norm-based literature, this article argues that it was the peculiar interplay of persuasion and argumentation with material incentives, pressure, and bargaining that created the support for norm challenge in the early stages, in particular in the case of the states that remained highly sceptical of the challenge.

The nuclear security discourse: Proliferation vs disarmament concerns

The phrase ‘proliferation concern’ tags its subject – circumstances, a government, a policy, a capability – as a threat to the nuclear non-proliferation regime. It is applied as a discursive tool in the increasingly powerful nuclear security discourse, reinforced by successive US presidents to frame an understanding of nuclear relations in the language of US interests and national security. This article investigates the evolution of this discourse and what the phrase ‘proliferation concern’ means in nuclear arms control parlance and practice from the point of view of non-nuclear weapon states, especially the emerging powers. Emerging powers (like Brazil, Turkey and South Africa) struggle with the hype around nuclear security that is used to restrict rights to civilian nuclear technology while endlessly postponing nuclear disarmament. For these states, the discourse brings about ‘disarmament concerns’. The article uses the South African case study to illustrate the problematic nature of this discourse.

Japan-India civil nuclear energy cooperation: prospects and concerns

India is a non-party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, India argues its impeccable non-proliferation record shows the country as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology that should be allowed to acquire the same benefits and advantages of nuclear energy cooperation under the existing global nuclear non-proliferation regime. This statement needs careful analysis of whether or not the Japan-India civil nuclear energy cooperation agreement could be successfully concluded and acceded to. This paper elaborates on the possibilities and concerns related to the matter from a politico-legal point of view, in order to materialise a mutually satisfactory and legitimate bilateral agreement. The scope of possible civil nuclear energy cooperation may be limited, probably not exceeding the level that the US has agreed with India, right now. It is, however, a necessary initial step for dramatically reconstructing our relationship, which may allow for greater cooperation in the near future.