The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Strengths, Weaknesses and Current Status

Abstract

This commentary offers an analysis of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), its strengths, weaknesses, relationship to other agreements as well as recent updates. Indicating the urgency in enacting nuclear disarmament, nuclear threats loom over two of the major conflicts we are facing today: the danger of nuclear proliferation in Iran as it enters ever more direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed Israel; and the collective careful dance along the fine line of support for Ukraine while not provoking a nuclear-armed Russia. We argue that framing the issue of the threat or use of nuclear weapons in humanitarian and environmental terms proved to be a motivating and compelling normative catalyst that drew both civil society and member states into the treaty-making process. We also argue that the nuclear taboo is eroding, and deterrence theory is highly flawed. This piece reflects on the outcomes of the First Meeting of States Parties in Vienna in 2022 and updates from the Second Meeting of States Parties in late 2023 in New York, which the authors attended, plus gives an update on the endeavors of the intersessional working groups.

Keywords

• Nuclear weapons
• humanitarian law
• non-proliferation
• nuclear abolition
• nuclear taboo
• nuclear accidents