Description
This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding nuclear disarmament as a process of transformative social change rather than a technical or institutional endpoint. It argues that theorising multilateral nuclear disarmament requires “anticipatory” rather than empirical theory: one that imagines how an alternative world could be made possible. Drawing on Robert Cox’s distinction between problem-solving and critical theory, the article situates disarmament within the broader project of re-ordering global power relations that sustain nuclearism. It integrates insights from Futures Studies to frame nuclear disarmament as an ethical, participatory, and value-driven practice of imagining and inventing new forms of global security. It maps a diversity of theoretical approaches to reveal how different traditions explain or enable change. Building on Barry Buzan’s concept of nested institutions of international society, the article conceptualises a “global nuclear society” structured by contradictory norms of sovereignty, deterrence, and equality. It concludes that theorising nuclear disarmament entails uncovering these contradictions and identifying feasible transformative pathways that link imagination, ethics, and power. In doing so, it seeks to re-centre disarmament as both a theoretical and political act of inventing humanity’s future beyond nuclear violence.
