Nuclear Disarmament: Does the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Tpnw) Offer Any Future Prospects?

Abstract

“I haven't been to hell, so I don't know what it's like, but hell is probably like what we went through. It must never be allowed to happen again.”1 The world witnessed the dreadful environmental and humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use after the a-bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during the second world war. The use of nuclear weapons in Nagasaki and Hiroshima as well as the continued nuclear test explosions and nuclear plant accidents prompted the negotiation and subsequent adoption of the existing legislative, policy, and institutional frameworks on nuclear disarmament. Commendably, the existing frameworks have averted nuclear warfare so far. As such, the aim of this research is to evaluate the inadequacies of and hence the ability of such frameworks to ultimately realize general and complete disarmament, especially considering contemporary challenges in nuclear disarmament. Further, this research is aimed at an evaluation of whether the novel Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) offers any future prospects in nuclear disarmament. The inadequacies in the existing frameworks discussed in this research include ambiguity in Article VI of the NPT, non-existence of a treaty banning nuclear testing, non-existence of a NFZ in the Middle East, inadequacies in both the IAEA and the CoD. The contemporary challenges in nuclear disarmament discussed in this research include nuclear terrorism, cyber-related challenges as well as competition and lack of cooperation among NWSs and NPSs. After an evaluation of the TPNW, the research found that the TPNW does indeed offer prospects in nuclear disarmament. This is because the TPNW resolves most of the inadequacies in the existing frameworks and some of the contemporary challenges in nuclear disarmament. These findings indicate that the TPNW, as a complementary mechanism to the existing frameworks, has tremendous prospects of propelling the world towards general and complete nuclear disarmament