The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which came into force in 2021, aims to create a world without nuclear weapons. It fundamentally challenges the governance structures of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and thus the existing nuclear order. How could this rebellion of comparatively small players against the most militarily powerful states in the world succeed? In his new book publication “Rule & Resistance in the Nuclear Order”, Sascha Hach shows how the power structures in the NPT were challenged by the Humanitarian Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament.
The answer lies in the formation of an alliance of non-nuclear weapon states and civil society, which used subversive techniques to counter the discursive and procedural dominance of the nuclear weapon states. Some of this resistance was also motivated by anti-colonialism. These subversive techniques of resistance against arbitrary great power politics are becoming increasingly important in view of the geopolitical upheavals worldwide.
In the study, Sascha Hach draws on numerous primary sources and qualitative interviews with top diplomats and NGO representatives. The innovative theoretical approach to the study of rule and resistance in international relations, combined with a critical and postcolonial perspective, opens up new insights into the functioning of the nuclear order and successful strategies of political resistance.
“Rule & Resistance in the Nuclear Order” is based on Sascha Hach's dissertation project, which was carried out as part of the “Perspectives on Arms Control” project with support from the German Federal Foreign Office. The book has been published by transcript-Verlag and is available open access thanks to support from the PRIF Publication Fund and the Leibniz Association.
