Nuclear Arms Control

Three decades after the end of the Cold War nuclear dangers are on the rise again for a variety of reasons: the arms control system, which was established between Moscow and the West over the last decades, is in decline. At the same time, since its all-out war against Ukraine, Russia is openly threatening to use nuclear weapons and - by doing so - undermining "the nuclear taboo". Beyond NATO and Russia, the owners of ninety percent of worldwide nuclear weapons, smaller nuclear weapon states such as China, India and Pakistan, are slowly increasing their arsenals. Despite international efforts to curb its nuclear ambitions, North Korea joined the club of nuclear powers, whereas Iran has been a nuclear threshold state for almost two decades.

But there is also hope: a growing number of states, supported by civil society organizations such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), is calling for a total prohibition of nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force in 2021, is the strongest expression for this new push for global nuclear disarmament.