Description
In this paper, I aim to analyse the future of the global nuclear order from a symbolic framework. 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and questions regarding both its importance and its meaning arise. To this end, I propose a framework focusing the symbolism of nuclear weapons and the NPT in order to provide new analytical prism and new avenues to think about non-proliferation and disarmament. This paper is structured in four parts: firstly, I review the current theoretical explanatory models of nuclear behaviour and their accounts of the NPT. Secondly, I present a theoretical model focusing on the symbolic perceptions of nuclear weapons and see symbolism – and its construction – as a driver for behaviour. Thirdly, I put forward the argument that nuclear behaviour is subject to the intersubjective semiotic processes determining the symbolic perceptions of nuclear weapons, and that further understanding this variable is crucial to shaping the future of the global nuclear order. Lastly, based on the symbolic framework, I analyse the NPT as a symbol and its role in the future of the global nuclear order.
