Nuclear Latency and The Participation Puzzle: Constructing of the International Non-Proliferation Regime

Leonardo Bandarra

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9783031701214
• eBook ISBN: 9783031701221
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Scholars and practitioners usually regard the nuclear non-proliferation regime as composed of two categories of countries – those with and those without nuclear weapons. The latter are regarded as the core designers of that regime, while the former have their prominence in shaping non-proliferation institutions eclipsed or ignored. This book proposes to go beyond that duality by focusing on a usually neglected group of states: latent nuclear countries. Those are the countries that possess advanced nuclear capabilities but no weapons.

This book shows that latent nuclear countries not only participate actively in non-proliferation institutions but also promote the creation of new frameworks highlighting concerns and perspectives different from their nuclear-weapon and nuclear-free counterparts. The author makes this argument through an intricate combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, with an in-depth analysis of Brazil and Germany as sources for case studies. He makes the case to understand the nuclear non-proliferation regime as an inclusive and refined approach that takes into consideration countries' nuclear capabilities, identities, role conceptions, and domestic structures.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: Nuclear Latency and the Participation Puzzle
• 2. The Puzzle: Nuclear Latency and Participation in the Non-Proliferation Regime
• 3. A Role Theory Approach to Participation
• 4. Into the Macro-Level: A Set-Theoretical Analysis of Participation in the Non-Proliferation Regime
• 5. The Civilian Power: German Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policy and Participation Strategy (1990–2020)
• 6. The Global Development Power: The Brazilian Non-Proliferation Policy and Participation Strategy (1990–2020)
• 7. Conclusion: Limitations, Contributions, and Policy Implications
• Back Matter