Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone developments in Asia: Problems and prospects

Critical Geopolitics and the Control of Arms in the 21st Century

“…20 Implicit in the spread of international nuclear weapons free zones is the failure of the existing non-proliferation regime to constrain the spread of nuclear weapons. 21 In the 1980s the hope of nuclear weapons free campaigners was that this territorial strategy would gradually restrict the use and transport of nuclear weapons, and in the process extend the international norms condemning these devices in a manner that would bring political pressure to bear on the 44 CONTEMPORARY SECURITY POLICY superpowers to get serious about disarmament. While the numbers of weapons in Russian and American inventories have decreased dramatically from their Cold War levels, at least so far, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty still seems to be more about maintaining the political status quo than eliminating weapons.…”