The Power of the Powerless: Lessons from the TPNW and Reflections on the Practice of Diplomacy

ABSTRACT

The negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was a milestone in the history of nuclear diplomacy and marks a remarkable example of the “power of the powerless” in taking global political action. This article draws on the author’s experience as a woman diplomat from Costa Rica and as participant in and President of the historic 2017 treaty negotiations to reflect on the role in constructing new solutions to a long-standing global problem of small states and middle powers, civil society organizations, scientists, academia, and communities affected by nuclear weapons testing and development. These actors, traditionally seen as marginal in the prevailing global system, play pivotal roles in global processes. It places this exercise of power by the powerless in the context of the legacies of earlier individual leaders and countries that have significantly contributed to shaping the ideas and social movements that transform societies and the international system in the long term. The essay aims in particular to offer insights based on the TPNW negotiating experience into how concepts and practices of leadership and agency, and innovative processes, may help in the search by the international community for new paradigms and organizing principles at the current historic moment of overlapping crises, and multiple social, environmental, and technological transitions.

KEYWORDS:

• TPNW
• nuclear weapon prohibition
• small state leadership
• international negotiation
• innovate negotiation

Acknowledgments

This text is adapted from a public lecture by Elayne G. Whyte at Princeton University on April 11, 2023 as part of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Dean’s Leadership Series. The author extends sincere appreciation to Dean Amaney Jamal and to the Program in Science and Global Security for the invitation to deliver the lecture, and to Ananya Malhotra for invaluable assistance in editing and revising the lecture for publication.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ Recent research and publications highlight the great leadership exercised by various women in shaping many political, normative and institutional processes in the international order over the last 75 years, including the case of Latin American women delegates in the drafting of the United Nations Charter. See, among others, Adami and Plesch (2022), especially the chapter by E. Dietrichson and F. Sator, “The Latin American Women: How they shaped the UN Charter and Why Southern Agency is Forgotten”.

² At that moment, there were no other women in the executive level in any of the newly-founded international organizations, see Sluga (2014, 47).

³ On the special role and leadership of Alva Myrdal, see Sluga (2014).

⁴ Background on the Stockholm declaration can be found at the United Nations Audiovisual Library: https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/dunche/dunche_ph_e.pdf. The speech by Prime Minister of Sweden, Olaf Palme can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0-kONrKS78&t=148s.

⁵ The UNEP was created by Resolution 2997 of the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.

⁶ “Final Communiqué of the Asian-African Conference of Bandung”, 24 April 1955, https://content.ecf.org.il/files/M00822_BandungConference1955FinalCommuniqueEnglish.pdf.

⁷ National Security Archive, “60th Anniversary of Irish Resolution: A Forerunner of the NPT”, 29 October 2018, Washington D.C. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-10-29/60th-anniversary-irish-resolution-forerunner-npt.

⁸ See Kaul, Grunberg and Stern (1999). They highlight three main gaps: jurisdictional, participation and incentives.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elayne G. Whyte

Elayne G. Whyte is a diplomat and academic. She holds the position of Professor of Practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She served as the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica and as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations. In 2017, she was the President of the United Nations Conference that negotiated and adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. She has held diverse leadership positions in security and disarmament treaty regimes at both regional and global levels. Additionally, she has led several global negotiation processes aimed at addressing legal or cooperation gaps in the universal human rights system and the global health agenda within the World Health Organization. Elayne Whyte has been a Fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Scholars Program and the Advanced Leadership Initiative. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace and the School of International Relations of the National University of Costa Rica as well as a senior consultant for international and academic institutions.