This commentary collection compiles 15 articles by 18 ELN network members and external collaborators as part of the ELN’s Protecting the Non-Proliferation Treaty project. The collection was originally published for the 2024 NPT Preparatory Committee.
Nuclear-weapon-free zones can help strengthen global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament norms and are a key element underpinning the NPT. Despite this, new zones in Europe, the Middle East, and North-East Asia have not materialised so far. Tarja Cronberg writes that legally based negative security guarantees and other innovative approaches are needed.
After President XI’s visit to Moscow, we asked our network members for their thoughts on what this means for the war in Ukraine and global politics more broadly. Is China ramping up its support for Russia or acting as a calming influence on a potential future junior partner? Read the piece to see our members’ contributions in full.
In the past, concerns about a nuclear attack were mainly in regard to the leaders of rogue states acquiring nuclear weapons. The war in Ukraine has shifted this threat to the leader of a superpower waging a war with thousands of known nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert. Tarja Cronberg explores the ways in which control over nuclear weapons can be taken out of the hands of world leaders, and how to mitigate the risk of a nuclear war triggered by the human error of powerful individuals.
Members of the ELN Network respond to ELN Director Sir Adam Thomson’s recent commentary, reflecting on what choices countries can make that will affect what a 21st-century-style cold war will be like.
At the end of June, the first Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place in Vienna. At this inaugural meeting, states parties to the TPNW gathered to commit to concrete actions to implement obligations under the Treaty. ELN network member Tarja Cronberg participated in the meeting and shares her reflections with us.