Publications

This collection of articles is an outgrowth of the 2013 annual arms control conference held under the auspices of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv. The conference, “The Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime at a Crossroads,” took place on February 11-12, 2013, and was held in conjunction with the Paris-based Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique.

The articles compiled in this volume grapple with questions and dilemmas that arise from a growing sense in recent years that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has reached a critical juncture, and that its continued role as the centerpiece of the nuclear nonproliferation regime is at risk. This is the result of a process that has unfolded gradually since the end of the Cold War, which also spelled the end of the bipolar global structure that, in the minds of many, helped keep nuclear proliferation in check.

The tensions that exist between state interests, norms, and notions of collective security regarding nuclear nonproliferation efforts lie at the heart of the articles that comprise the opening two sections of this volume. The first of these sections focuses on interests that have driven the NPT from its inception to its current possibly precarious status; the second section considers future prospects for the treaty. In the third section, authors direct their attention to proliferation and nonproliferation trends at the global level, specifically, the impact of changes in the international system, President Obama’s embrace of the global zero agenda, Russia’s perspective on nonproliferation, and the impact of Pakistan on the global nuclear order. An effective verification mechanism is critical for ensuring that states uphold their nonproliferation commitments to the NPT, and the two chapters of the following section focus specifically on this sometimes elusive goal. The volume’s closing section is devoted to the Middle East, and focuses in particular on the terms and conditions for establishing a regional security regime, and the problems encountered vis-à-vis the initiative adopted at the 2010 NPT Review Conference to hold a conference on a weapons of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East.