Normalizing zero nuclear weapons: The humanitarian road to the Prohibition Treaty

ABSTRACT

The nuclear age has come to be seen as “normal,” marked by a process of “nuclearism” whereby nuclear weapons and deterrence are seen as inevitable and acceptable elements of international security. Factors which have allowed this to flourish include the relative absence of humanitarian considerations, nuclear decision-making by a select few, and the unequal nature of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), where the P5 states have shaped the nuclear order on their own terms. The “humanitarian initiative” and Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons challenge this “normal” nature of nuclear weapons, re-casting them as incompatible with humanitarian law, and delegitimizing them for all states. This shift away from the structural constraints of the NPT allows non-nuclear states a degree of agency they did not previously possess. Nonetheless, the Treaty faces difficulty in dislodging the practices of the nuclear-weapon states, suggesting that its value lies in its long-term normative influence.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuclear weapons
• humanitarian initiative
• prohibition treaty
• nuclearism

Acknowledgements

This article is partly based on research conducted for the author’s forthcoming book on humanitarianism and the nuclear weapons debate. She would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this article, as well as the editor, for their valuable input into this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Marianne Hanson is an associate professor of international relations at the University of Queensland, specialising in international security and arms control. She has been appointed to the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN), whose objective is to inform and energize public opinion, and especially high-level policymakers, to take seriously the very real threats posed by nuclear weapons, and to achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished, and ultimately eliminated. She holds an MPhil and DPhil in international relations from Oxford University.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was conducted as part of a US Institute of Peace [Grant, 160–12F], for the project Nuclear Norms in Global Governance.