Abstract:
Nine countries currently have nuclear weapons and of these only three have acquired them
in the past 40 years. The primary reason for this has been the establishment of a powerful
nuclear non-proliferation regime and its associated norms. The powerful influence of both
the regime and the resulting norms on state behaviour is unquestionable. However a
limited amount of state proliferation continues and some states’ behaviour suggests that
they either reject, or believe that they are outside of the influence of the regime and its
norms.
My study is looking at the problem of non-conformity to the non-proliferation norm to see
why it occurs. The issue is specifically a nuclear one however non-conformity to norms has
wider implications in the study of international relations (IR). Regimes and norms clearly do
not exist in a vacuum but operate within an international social environment. This nuclear
issue remains a central consideration for state foreign policy and hence has justified
extensive examination in the field of IR. The intellectually and ethically complex issues that
surround access to this technology were acknowledged from its devastating baptism in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
International regulation was seen as the most appropriate form of control of nuclear
weapons. This was in part due to the potential consequence of the misuse and the impact
of accidents transcending national boundaries. This ultimate destructive capability has only
been in the hands of a few states and the dissemination and control of this capability has
been contentious from the day it was first used. Initially its power came from its potential
to completely dominate militarily. As soon as the second country gained the same
capability it became a lot more complicated. The destructive capability of nuclear weapons
is such that any future war that saw their use could result in the annihilation of the human
species. The Cold War and its extreme vertical nuclear proliferation actualised this fear.
Nuclear technologies dual purpose functionality, of both peaceful power generation and
the creation of a military nuclear capability make for a complex situation. There is an
obvious power imbalance between the nuclear haves and have-nots and a self protective
desire to stop or at least limit the number of countries attempting to join the ‘nuclear club’. Both realism and neo-liberal institutionalism are able to explain, in part, conformity and
non conformity to regimes and their associated norms within today’s social environment. In
this study I will use a social constructivist approach, which is based on the outcomes of
persuasion, identification and social conformity, to see if it can add to the current
explanations of state nuclear proliferation.
