Strategic Assessment

As codified in Article VI of the NPT, global actors have contemplated nuclear disarmament since nuclear weapons first appeared. The latest initiative is the UN First Committee resolution on multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations, which passed in late October 2016 with significant support, albeit without the endorsement of most nuclear weapons states. When considering the initiative’s feasibility, it is important to assess its normative and strategic underpinnings. Ironically, perhaps, the continued existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the few states that have carved out rules of the game in the nuclear realm is less of a challenge to international security than the potential spread of nuclear weapons to determined proliferators with a proven record of breaking the rules.