Description
The recent failure of the 2022 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference once again highlighted the deep divides between states within the global nuclear order, and the persistent challenges facing the myriad nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control machinery in and beyond the UN. With polarizing nuclear deterrence and disarmament positions now increasingly entrenched, to what extent can states achieve effective multilateral solutions through existing global governance mechanisms, or must they look to new approaches? How can the global nuclear order become more networked, inclusive, and anchored within the UN as the UN's Our Common Agenda highlighted?
As the theory and practice of international negotiations show us, clubs and coalitions of states are often essential in shaping the process and outcome of multilateralism as well as the implementation of subsequent agreements. Yet clubs and coalitions can also block progress, entrench negotiation positions, and even divert attention away from stagnated multilateral negotiations by pushing for progress through alternative or new fora. Such contradictions also abound in the global nuclear order, yet coalitions may yet hold the key to finding complementarity and achieving multilateral progress in nuclear politics. This panel brings together new empirical, conceptual, and theoretical approaches in the study of clubs and coalitions as actors within the global nuclear order. Papers address the different types of coalitions at play, how clubs and coalitions consolidate around specific negotiation positions, how they influence multilateral effectiveness, and the respective merits of different conglomerations of clubs across multilateral, regional, and minilateral modes of governance. The panel therefore seeks to contribute much needed new analytical lenses and empirical data to inform and shape efforts to strengthen global governance within the global nuclear order, and by extension governance in the UN’s own disarmament and non-proliferation machinery.
