11. Nuclear disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation

Chapter:

11. Nuclear disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2021

Author(s):

Tytti Erästö, Vitaly Fedchenko, Petr Topychkanov

Although, on balance, 2020 was a difficult year for nuclear arms control and non-proliferation efforts, it marked an important milestone in the development of international norms on nuclear disarmament: on 24 October 2020 Honduras became the 50th state to ratify or accede to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), triggering its entry into force 90 days later (see section III). The TPNW is the first treaty to establish a comprehensive ban on nuclear weapons, including their development, deployment, possession, use and threat of use. This prohibition has brought to the fore the tension between proponents of nuclear disarmament and nuclear deterrence: while civil society and many non-nuclear weapon states welcomed the entry into force of the treaty, the nuclear weapon states and their allies viewed it as undermining the existing nuclear order based on the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT).