The Irrelevance of ‘Trusting Relationships’ in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Reconsidering the Dynamics of Proliferation

Abstract

In a recent paper Jan Ruzicka and Nicholas J. Wheeler have posited that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is an example of several ‘trusting relationships’. The authors assert that ‘since the end of the 1990s the trusting relationships embodied in the NPT have come under strain’ and that this accounts for the fact that the ‘treaty is facing growing pressures that are eroding what has been an effective barrier to nuclear weapons proliferation’. This article questions the assumptions underlying this analysis. It argues that the approach taken by Ruzicka and Wheeler fundamentally misconceives the dynamics of nuclear non-proliferation. The policy implications generated by this approach are impractical and downright dangerous as they fail to address the causes of proliferation and instead exacerbate the problem further.