The Prohibition Of Nuclear Weapons Research Articles

Logic (or Illogic?) of Japan’s Aversion to TPNW and Charting a Path Forward

ABSTRACT Japan, the only country to have experienced atomic bombs during wartime, is the only one among the US allies to have positively evaluated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the highest political level, with Prime Minister Kishida saying that as “a very important treaty that can serve an exit as we seek to realize a world without nuclear weapons”. Yet Japan has distanced itself from the TPNW, not participating even as an observer in the TPNW’s Meeting of States Parties. This paper attempts to explain Japan’s stance toward the TPNW process, before and after the formation of the treaty, based on a theory that Japan’s nuclear policy is formed by a balancing act between two factors: humanitarian and security concerns. It then attempts to chart a path forward for any possible engagement between Japan and the TPNW. It argues that a substance-over-formality approach, not sticking to the TPNW formalities but in a framework separate from the TPNW, may open a window of opportunity for cooperation. Japan can also flexibly consider security benefits in engaging with the TPNW and comprehensively calculate possible security benefits and drawbacks without a predetermined conclusion. Since the NPT may not be sustainable unless there is a significant progress in nuclear disarmament, which itself is unlikely, like it or not, the TPNW cannot be ignored indefinitely and the time may come in the not-too-distant future when Japan will eventually have to consider engagement with the TPNW.

Regional socialization and disarmament preferences: Explaining state positions on the nuclear ban treaty

ABSTRACT We bring nuance to the understanding of cleavages among states over the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). We measure the positions of the participants to the 2022 and 2023 TPNW Meetings of State Parties, employing text-as-data approaches. Our results show that the participants can be placed along a single axis, roughly associated with whether they view nuclear disarmament in an “old” way as primarily a security problem or in a “new” way as a humanitarian and emancipatory issue. We find that membership in a nuclear weapon-free zone—particularly in Latin America and Africa—has a statistically significant effect on state positions. We therefore debunk the idea that parties to the nuclear ban treaty are a coherent single block. Our article provides a new, quantitative way of measuring the positions of states vis-à-vis the TPNW and contributes to the emerging scholarship on the treaty.

The Impact of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Crucial Role of the European NATO Allies

This article makes the argument that the role of the European NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies, and especially the non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), may and should play a key role in the future of nuclear disarmament. Once the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is signed and ratified by more or less 100 NNWS, mostly from the Global South, it will be up to the allied NNWS to make up their mind about their role vis-à-vis nuclear disarmament. Will they continue to behave as protégés by (and in some way also protectors of) the nuclear-armed states and break the disarmament process further, or will they shake off the nuclear “protection” in the interest of making progress toward a world without nuclear weapons? This article zooms in on the European NATO allies in particular. The TPNW can and will be used to put pressure on the European NATO allies to switch sides, and it can, on its turn, be used by the European NATO allies to stigmatize the nuclear-armed states in order to make progress in the direction of nuclear elimination. The article starts by reviewing the origins and objectives of the TPNW. In the next section, its impact will be scrutinized. We then turn to the current and possible future role of the European NATO allies.

The Contribution of Latin America and the Caribbean to Multilateral Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament

This article addresses the developments and interconnections between regional and global-level negotiations to prohibit nuclear weapons. Ambassador Sergio Duarte, who has been one of the leading negotiators on nuclear weapons disarmament and nonproliferation since the 1960s and is the current president of the Pugwash movement, traces the history of Latin American and Caribbean efforts to forge stronger ties and foster regional cooperation. He goes back to the first quarter of the nineteenth century to show how those ties laid the ground for the conception of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the first Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in a populated area, and facilitated the region’s active role in nuclear affairs. He also dives into other successful arrangements, such as the creation of a binational agency (ABACC) that ensures control of nuclear materials in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to build confidence and increase cooperation in the nuclear field, and he describes the region’s key role in enabling the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The European Union and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Let’s Agree that we Disagree

The European Union has traditionally been an efficient actor on nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, but a poor actor on disarmament, mainly due to internal decisions within the Union on this issue. However, due to the growing crisis in the global arms control architecture and the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), increased pressure is being exerted on the EU not only to adopt concrete positions on this issue, but also to act. This, it is argued, will be complicated, if not impossible, due to the internal structure and decision-making process of the Union, which cannot be asked to do more than it can do.

How Great Powers Resist Emerging Norms: The United States and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

According to theories of international order-making, the most powerful states seek to institute global norms that suit their interests. Less appreciated, however, is that powerful states have also sought to undermine certain norms to maintain particular types of order. With their outsized influence in the international system, how do great powers resist emerging norms? This article presents a case illustration of US strategies to resist the reemerging anti-nuclear weapon norm. This norm was institutionalized in July 2017 with the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Though US strategies did not stop the norm from codification within the TPNW, US actions seek to maintain this norm in a state of limbo, whereby the norm does not become fully entrenched within the international system.

Post-nuclear worldmaking and counter-hegemony: Against catastrophic failures of imagination

Abstract Studies of nuclear politics and IR more widely have failed to seriously engage with what future nuclear-disarmed worlds would or should look like. I respond to this failure of imagination by advocating for a project of ‘post-nuclear worldmaking’. Counter-hegemonic political efforts around the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) are a useful first step to ‘connecting’ our nuclear-armed present to a disarmed future. However, they do not tell us much about the broader characteristics of this future. Moreover, they often fail to transcend conservative assumptions of plausibility and probability, which unnecessarily exclude what might be called ‘utopian’ visions of alternative futures. In the context of mounting uncertainty generated by threats to planetary security, post-nuclear worldmaking can assist in drawing strong connections between the present and radically different future worlds, which should not be discounted as improbable or impossible. This project enables a widening of the scope of nuclear futures and policy options which are considered thinkable, as well as contributing a future-facing, prefigurative element of politics which complements existing counter-hegemonic strategy. It highlights the unavoidable obligation for nuclear scholars to think in utopian terms.

RENEWING THE AGENDA FOR PEACE: MOBILIZING THE MULTILATERAL SYSTEM TO PREVENT NUCLEAR RISKS

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought back the spectre of nuclear war. A sustained nuclear “sabre-rattling” from Russian authorities has triggered a dynamic debate about the Russian nuclear doctrine, the feasibility of use of “tactical” nuclear warheads in the Ukrainian battle theatre, the alleged consequences of such use, including escalation to a wider nuclear exchange with the United States and NATO, and the impact of such developments in global peace and security. The alarming prospect of nuclear devastation requires a bold political response from all peace-loving nations, particularly those from the South, cooperating with United Nations members coalescing around the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and, more widely, in like-minded coalitions galvanized by the humanitarian consequences of nuclear detonations. The Latin American and Caribbean region, and Chile in particular, have a special responsibility to deploy their diplomatic capabilities, inter alia, by supporting the Secretary General’s “New agenda for peace”, and mobilising the normative and operational powers of the General Assembly.

Accommodating Nutopia: The nuclear ban treaty and the developmental interests of Global South countries

Abstract This article argues that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) would not have been possible without protecting the inalienable rights of states to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. While some Western states and NGOs have pushed to ban all applications of nuclear technology, this was unacceptable to a large number of disarmament-supporting states from the Global South and the Non-Aligned Movement. Without support from states across the Global South, the TPNW would not have achieved the required number of signatories to be adopted. Thus, we argue that to properly understand the TPNW, an appreciation of states’ interests and motivations beyond their more widely discussed frustrations with the pace of nuclear disarmament is essential. We also argue that nuclear weapons scholarship must pay more attention to perspectives from the Global South and the concept of Nutopia – a belief in both the dystopian potential of nuclear weapons and the utopian possibilities of nuclear energy – in its understanding of nuclear politics, past and present. Global South perspectives are often overlooked, and as such, current regimes of nuclear arms control and disarmament remain only partially understood in Western literature.

HOW EFFECTIVE MECHANISM IS THE CONVENTION ONTHEPROHIBITIONOFNUCLEARWEAPONSON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (TPNW)TODETERNUCLEARESCALATION?(TPNW) TO DETER NUCLEAR ESCALATION

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Convention on the ProhibiƟ on of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) toward deterring nuclear escalaƟ on, which entered into force in 2021 and prohibits the creaƟ on, posses-sion, proliferaƟ on and use of nuclear weapons while also responding to a number of demands related to denucle-arizaƟ on. For the in-depth analysis of the theme, the regimes theory in InternaƟ onal RelaƟ ons and the criteria of the theoreƟ cal explanaƟ on of the regime eff ecƟ veness are selected. The paper is built around the basic premise that the ConvenƟ on is ineff ecƟ ve in achieving its intended goals and discusses three main arguments: (a) norma-Ɵ ve incoherence, (b) lack of insƟ tuƟ onal mechanisms, and (c) neglect of the global security and strategic context. To prove the laƩ er, the paper analyzes the Russian war against Ukraine and the importance of nuclear deterrence in the background of the nuclear warnings coming from Russia. Despite the reasons listed above, the main draw-back of the ConvenƟ on is the refusal of the nuclear-weapon states to raƟ fy the agreement. On the one hand, the anarchic international system creates a solid basis for mistrust and asymmetric gains between states, and on the other hand, the ConvenƟ on does not off er them security guarantees. Accordingly, the ConvenƟ on represents an idealisƟ c view of internaƟ onal organizaƟ ons and civil society.

Challenging war traditions: humanitarian discourse and the nuclear prohibition treaty

Abstract This article interrogates the humanitarian discourse and the emergence of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Often acknowledged as decisive for adopting the TPNW, the humanitarian discourse is considered vital to stigmatizing nuclear weapons and their purported deterrence value. However, the literature has not thoroughly examined the mechanisms through which speaking in humanitarian terms enabled proponents of the TPNW to exercise agency, failing to appreciate the complex discursive practices sustaining power relations in nuclear politics. This article introduces a theoretical framework that can help us make sense of these complexities, while illuminating additional ways through which the humanitarian discourse contributed to the TPNW. Using a feminist post-structuralist lens, I argue that the humanitarian discourse enabled small and middle-power states to challenge war traditions that sustain dominant configurations of power in nuclear politics. Upon speaking in humanitarian terms, these states destabilized the ongoing reiteration of the protector/protected dichotomy that has placed non-nuclear states in a position of subordination. The article draws attention to how dominant assumptions of the masculine and feminine shape global politics, while advancing theoretical tools to help us grasp and seize possibilities for policy innovation and change.

Environmental remediation as social archaeology: Excavating sites contaminated by early nuclear weapons activities in New York City, both literally and hermeneutically

AbstractNew York City, where the Manhattan Project began, has some of the world's oldest nuclear weapons production sites, exposing New Yorkers to ongoing risks of ionising radiation. This article considers six sites of particular environmental concern. Assessment, monitoring and clean‐up of these locations have taken place over three different periods: private remediation before 1992; federal government remediation in the early 1990s followed by two decades of neglect; and a long‐standing campaign to deal with risks at two remaining sites. Addressing radioactive legacies has involved a feedback loop between literal excavation of contaminated locations and a more hermeneutical process of meaning‐making. Journalists, activists and politicians have transformed some places into sites of memory, cultivating connections to concerns about environmental justice, radiation protection and nuclear disarmament. The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) established new obligations to remediate environments contaminated by nuclear weapons activities. While the USA refuses to join the TPNW, in‐depth, historical study of remediation at these sites can provide useful insight for states parties establishing policy to implement TPNW obligations. Recent passage of nuclear disarmament legislation by the NY City Council shows the ongoing policy relevance of nuclear weapons issues in local policymaking.

You were bombed and now you have to pay for it: Questioning the positive obligations in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

AbstractOne of the central components of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is its victim assistance and environmental remediation provisions (known collectively as the Treaty’s ‘positive obligations’). While there is much to celebrate about efforts to remedy the damage caused by nuclear weapons, the way the TPNW distributes responsibility for this work is troubling. Under the Treaty, the primary responsibility for fulfilling the positive obligations is placed on the states parties that have individuals under their jurisdiction who are affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons and areas under their jurisdiction or control that have been contaminated by the use or testing of nuclear weapons (‘the affected states’) despite the fact that, often, these were not the states responsible for detonating the nuclear weapons. This article examines and critiques the reasons the Treaty’s drafters placed the main responsibility for victim assistance and environmental remediation on affected states. It argues that the rationales underpinning these provisions rest on shaky grounds, and that the Treaty’s approach has potential negative ramifications for nuclear disarmament and understanding the history of the use and testing of nuclear weapons. Further, it explores how the Treaty may play into worrying broader dynamics in public international law whereby the Global North is frequently absolved of responsibility for the harms it causes while the Global South is saddled with obligations to redress an array of harms.

Renewing Nagasaki’s Citizen Diplomacy

ABSTRACT For three quarters of a century, the hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) have stood firm in their quest to save humanity from nuclear annihilation. Through their voice and action, the people of Nagasaki City have demonstrated the strength of citizen diplomacy. The voice of Nagasaki can be heard everywhere – strong in its call that Nagasaki must remain the last place to suffer an atomic bombing. Most significantly, the hibakusha’s compelling testimonies brought the world the historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017. Despite this prohibition, the goal of a nuclear free world seems more elusive than ever, and the nuclear sceptre looms large. Today, the world faces a heightened risk of nuclear weapons use amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What should we do in this time of danger and opportunity? In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of its founding, the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University and the Nagasaki Council for Nuclear Weapons Abolition organised a special public lecture on 29th October 2022, to examine current challenges in the path toward a nuclear weapons-free world and to re-evaluate the roles that the A-Bombed city should play in advancing this goal. This article, adapted from the public lecture, reaffirms the vital role that Nagasaki must continue to play through a renewal of its citizen diplomacy. It highlights lessons from the TPNW negotiations and the opportunities that its adoption has created for Nagasaki to strengthen and expand its citizen diplomacy.

Why do states commit to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

ABSTRACT On January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. The aim of the treaty is to delegitimize nuclear weapons by strengthening the antinuclear norm. The aim comes with the expectation that this will gradually contribute to an environment in which nuclear weapons can be eliminated because they are unacceptable instruments of statecraft. However, the effectiveness of antinuclear norms has been contested in discussions around the TPNW. In particular, the question of how norms operate within smaller identity communities has attracted the attention of scholars studying commitment to international treaties. By using a mixed-methods research design, this article adds to the ongoing discussion by exploring the conditions under which regional normative pressure can explain commitment to the TPNW. Statistical analyses show that regional normative pressure significantly increases the likelihood of commitment. Further analyses, using qualitative comparative analysis, indicate that this pressure is effective only toward states with previous nonproliferation commitments and where commitment to the TPNW does not entail a perceived weakening of national security. Thus, in the context of disarmament, normative pressure is trumped by security concerns.

Examining Southeast Asia’s Diplomacy on Nuclear Disarmament and Nuclear Security: Shared Norms and a Regional Agenda

Member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) support the norms of nuclear disarmament and nuclear security through diplomatic efforts at the global level and regional efforts to promote nuclear safety and security. This is demonstrated in how ASEAN helped push for negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and its eventual passage, as well as ongoing efforts to promote regional cooperation in advancing nuclear security and nuclear safety. Regional frameworks and mechanisms like the ASEAN Network of Regulatory Bodies on Atomic Energy (ASEANTOM), the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the East Asia Summit provide the platforms for ASEAN to advance its diplomacy in promoting the norms of nuclear governance.

A contestation of nuclear ontologies: resisting nuclearism and reimagining the politics of nuclear disarmament

The global politics of nuclear disarmament has become deeply contested over the past decade, particularly around the negotiation of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Different explanations are offered, but these tend to centre on the geopolitics of the ‘security environment’ conceived in realist terms. This article makes sense of the TPNW and the global politics of nuclear disarmament by examining its underlying discourse and contestation within a wider framework of nuclear hegemony and resistances to it, drawing on Robert Cox’s theory of hegemony. It argues that the politics of nuclear disarmament has hardened into a contestation between two broadly incommensurable nuclear worldviews, or nuclear ontologies: hegemonic nuclearism and subaltern anti-nuclearism. These are not just different perspectives, but fundamentally different ways of understanding global nuclear politics that have important implications for the nuclear disarmament movement. Three conclusions emerge from this: that intersectionality is vital to understanding subaltern anti-nuclearism within wider processes of resistance in global politics; that contestation between hegemonic nuclearism and subaltern anti-nuclearism is agonistic; and that ‘bridge building’ approaches to find a middle ground generally deny this agonism and thereby close down debate, and that this explains why they often fail to gain traction. The article builds on the critical scholarship on nuclear hegemony, discourse and resistance and develops an original framework of hegemonic and subaltern nuclearism and anti-nuclearism.

Examining the Scope of Nuclear Weapons-Related Activities Covered under the Environmental Remediation Obligation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

AbstractThe entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in January 2021 has sparked much discussion of the Treaty's positive obligations under Article 6. But while victim assistance under Article 6(1) has received considerable attention, the environmental remediation obligation within Article 6(2) remains underexplored. Filling this gap, this article examines a specific issue relating to environmental remediation under Article 6(2): the scope of nuclear weapons-related activities captured by the obligation imposed upon TPNW parties. Ultimately, it is revealed that significant ambiguity exists as to the scope of activities covered when applying the rules of treaty interpretation of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. After offering some policy arguments both for and against a broad interpretation, this paper recommends that TPNW parties should begin to advance and clarify their positions on this issue in order to clearly identify the scope of Article 6(2).

Hierarchy, revisionism, and subordinate actors: The TPNW and the subversion of the nuclear order

Why and how do weak states challenge the status quo? This article builds on analyses of hierarchy in International Relations to develop a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of the concept of revisionism. We argue that while weak actors cannot generally directly challenge their position in a stratified hierarchy, they may be able to undermine or subvert the discourses that constitute these hierarchies. This approach is likely to be attractive and feasible under two conditions: when other approaches to reform have been frustrated, and when social and political resources are available to facilitate such subversive challenges. We illustrate this argument by analyzing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a subversive revisionist project. Small states—frustrated by their inability to negotiate meaningful reform through the status quo framework—partnered with civil society and drew upon discursive resources developed during prior subversive revisionist projects in an effort to stigmatize nuclear weapons and subvert the discourses constituting the advantaged positions of those possessing them. While the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is unlikely to directly persuade nuclear weapon states to abandon their arsenals, it could have unpredictable consequences across a related range of hierarchic fields that constitute the status quo order.

Кризис режима нераспространения ядерного оружия: итоги и перспективы

The article reveals the causes of the crisis of the global nuclear order, analyzes the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is the central element of the global nuclear order, the main goal of which is to prevent nuclear war. However, the lack of nuclear disarmament and the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons had led to the conclusion in 2017 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The new treaty further exposed existing shortcomings in the NPT and exacerbated unresolved conflicts over the proper approach to disarmament. The absence of genuine disarmament, the existence of disagreements among the parties within NPT, the persistence and attempts to proliferate nuclear weapons are part of a comprehensive crisis and destabilization of the non-proliferation regime. The author argues that in order to stabilize the nuclear nonproliferation regime, it is necessary to resolve the crisis of confidence between the major nuclear powers, depolarize the intergroup divisions of the countries' positions in the NPT, and return to the principle of preventing nuclear war as the main goal. Only a comprehensive response to the crisis of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, that will take into account the interests of all parties can stabilize and maintain the global nuclear order.