Conceptualizing Multilateral Nuclear Arms Control
2021 – 2024
World events in recent years have had sharp consequences for the prospects of nuclear arms control. Indeed, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, unraveling of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, and North Korean provocations have all increased nuclear dangers. Thus, this project aims to identify and assess viable mechanisms for nuclear arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament at a time of great turbulence in the global nuclear order. The research focuses on multilateral possibilities as bilateral nuclear arms control between the United States and the Russian Federation continues to stagnate.
In particular, it explores issues related to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and various Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs). The project scrutinizes multilateral nuclear arms control by asking understudied questions such as: Why do states sign and ratify these treaties? Who are the actors involved in the arms control process? How can policymakers design effective and durable agreements? And what might the future of verification look like given these dynamics?
The primary mode of inquiry is qualitative with causal mechanisms as the inferential target. Accordingly, the project incorporates historiography, archival studies often involving recently declassified documents, and original elite and oral history interviews.
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