Responding to Non-Cooperation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

Why are breaches of international commitments or norms heavily sanctioned in some cases but not others? How can the international community respond most effectively to acts of non- cooperation? These questions have assumed added urgency in recent years given the much-touted ‘crisis of multilateralism.’ They are perhaps nowhere more pressing than in the domain of global cooperation to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. Since the 1960s, states have cooperated to halt the spread of nuclear weapons through, inter alia, arms control treaties, nuclear safeguard protocols, and export control measures which restrict what nuclear technologies can be acquired or shared internationally—and subject to what safeguards. Yet, significant cases of overt or covert non-compliance have widened the circle of states that either possess or are deemed capable of producing weapons with potentially grievous implications for international security.