Reducing Nuclear Threats in a Time of Peril

ABSTRACT

The perspectives of the non-nuclear majority of states are frequently disregarded in the security policy discourse dominated by major military powers. Given the current high level of nuclear risks and the disconcerting nuclear weapons status quo, the non-nuclear majority of states argues through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) for a paradigm shift. This would entail a critical re-assessment of the veracity of arguments for nuclear deterrence and a weighing of these arguments against the empirical evidence on the humanitarian consequences and risks of nuclear weapons. Given that nuclear deterrence can fail and builds on many assumptions that are difficult to prove, policy decisions regarding nuclear weapons should be based on this growing body of empirical facts on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and the resulting high risks for the security of all humanity. Moreover, the legal, ethical, legitimacy, international and intergenerational justice questions should be considered in more detail. These aspects all underpin the TPNW and represent legitimate security concerns for the non-nuclear majority of states. Moreover, they put into question the notion of nuclear deterrence as a practice based on responsible behavior. At this moment of elevated nuclear risks, efforts by the international community should focus on re-enforcing the taboo against use or threat of use and nuclear blackmail and on actions to reduce nuclear risks in their entirety. This should be coupled with a recommitment to the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuclear disarmament
• nuclear deterrence
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
• humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons
• nuclear taboo
• nuclear threat

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Ambassador Alexander Kmentt

Ambassador Alexander Kmentt is the Director of the Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Department of the Austrian Foreign Ministry. From 2016-19, Alexander Kmentt served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the EU. He has worked extensively on disarmament issues, including as DPR to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary in the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. He is one of the architects of the initiative on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). He was responsible for the 2014 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons for which he conceived the Humanitarian Pledge that garnered the support of 135 States and paved the way for the 2017 TPNW. He was elected “Arms Control Person of the Year 2014” by the US-based Arms Control Association. During a sabbatical in 2019-20 as Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London, he wrote a book on the Humanitarian Initiative and the TPNW, which was published in May 2021.