Description
The second nuclear age is characterised by proliferation of nuclear technology to small and middle powers, emerging technological threats with introduction of dual-capable military systems and a growing trend towards great-power competition. However, with slow diffusion of nuclear technology, there are emerging regional centres of power like South Asia, or the Indo-Pacific where tensions are rising.
Unfortunately, the global nuclear order created at the back of the second world war continues to be seeped in the Cold-War rhetoric with focus on great nuclear powers forging the rules of the game through institutions and regimes which continue practice exclusionary and to a certain extent, discriminatory norms and decision-making procedures. This is evident in Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Annex 2 of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and so on. These institutions continue to treat the Third World nuclear powers as marginalised rather than as equal stakeholders in the global nuclear order. As expected, this has further deepened the divide between the two camps. This paper aims to analyse this divide from a normative lens and also suggest areas of convergences that can be envisioned to strengthen the functioning of the nuclear regimes and institutions in the global nuclear order.
