Publication details
Comprehensive Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – an Emerging International Norm?, in: The Nonproliferation Review, 23:1, 401–420
ArticleAuthor(s): Kütt, Moritz; Steffek, Jens
Year of publication: 2016
Abstract: There have been calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons from the day they were invented. Over the last fifteen years, some indications can be found that such calls have been getting louder, among them Barack Obama's famous 2009 speech in Prague. In this article, we investigate if support for a comprehensive norm that would prohibit development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons is really growing. To assess the current status of that norm, we use the model of a “norm life cycle,” developed by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. We then analyze 6,545 diplomatic statements from the review process of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as well as from the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, covering the years 2000 to 2013. The evidence shows that a comprehensive prohibition can be considered an emerging international norm that finds growing support among states without nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon states alike. Only a core group of states invoke the norm consistently, however. This leads us to conclude that the “tipping point” of the life cycle, at which adherence to a new norm starts to spread rapidly, has yet to be reached.
Keywords: diplomacy, Nuclear disarmament, nuclear abolition, treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, United Nations, multilateralism
Subject(s): political scienceDOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10736700.2016.1157246
Full text: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10736700.2016.1157246
