Publication

This paper argues against a claim the author has read in a pro-Ukrainian blog, suggesting that future efforts at nuclear nonproliferation will be compromised by the reluctance of the West to act on security guarantees under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The author says that the memorandum - which guarantees the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for renouncement of its nuclear weapons - is not applicable to more contemporary international counter proliferation efforts for two reasons: 1) the security guarantees only apply if Ukraine is a victim of nuclear aggression, and 2) the type of weapons Ukraine inherited in the early 1990s and the circumstances in which they could have been used is very different to those in 2014.