NEWSNEWS

2024年3月8日
image
image: flickr, New Zealand representatives at the ICJ in 1973, arguing the case against French nuclear testing.


Anna Hood and Monique Cormier
 
March 8, 2024


This report is published under a 4.0 International Creative Commons License the terms of which are found here.
 
This report is simultaneously published by the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network, Nautilus Institute, and the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA).

 

Abstract

Throughout the nuclear age, states have made a wide array of threats to use nuclear weapons. There is, however, often little clarity as to whether such threats are legal or illegal under international law. This article is the second in a two-part series, and in this piece we examine how two specific sets of international legal rules apply to select examples of past nuclear threats. In particular we analyse the legality of certain threats under the jus ad bellum regime of international law that regulates recourse to war between states, before turning to consider specific threat examples in the context of the jus in bello regime, which applies to regulate the conduct of hostilities during an armed conflict. Throughout the article, we identify a number of complexities and deficiencies in the ways that the rules of jus ad bellum and jus in bello apply to nuclear threats in practice.

Keywords: Nuclear weapons; international law; threat of force; nuclear threat

Authors’ Profile:

Dr Anna Hood is an associate professor at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law. Her research focuses primarily on international law and security, and international disarmament law. Within international disarmament law she has particular expertise in, and has published widely on, nuclear weapons law. She is the co-editor, with Dr Treasa Dunworth, of the book Disarmament Law: Reviving the Field (Routledge, 2020) and she has been awarded multiple grants for her work on international disarmament law. In addition to her academic research, Anna provides international law advice to a range of civil society organisations, think tanks and governments.

Dr Monique Cormier is a Senior Lecturer in the Monash University Faculty of Law. Her primary research interests include jurisdiction and immunities in international law and legal issues relating to nuclear non-proliferation. Recent publications include The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over Nationals of Non-States Parties (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and ‘Can Australia Join the Nuclear Ban Treaty without Undermining ANZUS?’ (Melbourne University Law Review, 2020, co-authored with Anna Hood).

Full text (PDF) is here.

The page for this project is here.
nu-nea_project2021-2023
 

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2024年3月1日
image
image: flickr, New Zealand representatives at the ICJ in 1973, arguing the case against French nuclear testing.


Anna Hood and Monique Cormier
 
March 1, 2024


This report is published under a 4.0 International Creative Commons License the terms of which are found here.
 
This report is simultaneously published by the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network, Nautilus Institute, and the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA).

 

Abstract

The international legal status of threats to use nuclear weapons is uncertain. In this article, we map existing prohibitions against nuclear threats at international law and seek to explain the scope and remit of such laws. To that end, the article explores unilateral negative security assurances; prohibitions on threats to use nuclear weapons in international agreements (including the TPNW, the nuclear weapons free zone treaties and their protocols, and the 1994 Budapest Memorandum); the rules concerning threats in the jus ad bellum regime; and the rules relating to threats in the jus in bello regime. Where there is disagreement about the way these international laws apply to threats to use nuclear weapons, we explain the different views and their significance, and we identify where there are gaps in the existing legal framework. This article is the first in a two-part series on the legality of nuclear threats.

Keywords: Nuclear weapons; international law; threat of force; nuclear threat

Authors’ Profile:

Dr Anna Hood is an associate professor at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law. Her research focuses primarily on international law and security, and international disarmament law. Within international disarmament law she has particular expertise in, and has published widely on, nuclear weapons law. She is the co-editor, with Dr Treasa Dunworth, of the book Disarmament Law: Reviving the Field (Routledge, 2020) and she has been awarded multiple grants for her work on international disarmament law. In addition to her academic research, Anna provides international law advice to a range of civil society organisations, think tanks and governments.

Dr Monique Cormier is a Senior Lecturer in the Monash University Faculty of Law. Her primary research interests include jurisdiction and immunities in international law and legal issues relating to nuclear non-proliferation. Recent publications include The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over Nationals of Non-States Parties (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and ‘Can Australia Join the Nuclear Ban Treaty without Undermining ANZUS?’ (Melbourne University Law Review, 2020, co-authored with Anna Hood).

Full text (PDF) is here.

The page for this project is here.
nu-nea_project2021-2023

 

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2024年2月29日

RECNA Workshop on Nuclear Disarmament
“Are nuclear weapons obsolete? -Nuclear policy lessons from the Russian war against Ukraine”

Date: March 12 (Tue) 2024, 9:00 am – 11:00 am (JST)
Place: On-Line (Zoom Webinar)
Language: English Only
Speaker: Dr. Pavel Podvig

Since the Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, the role of nuclear weapons in national security and utility of nuclear deterrence have been major subjects of discussion. We are fortunate that Dr. Pavel Podvig, a world leading expert on Russia’s nuclear policy, kindly agreed to give a speech at RECNA, during his visit to Nagasaki on this important issue. This is a great opportunity to learn more about nuclear deterrence and utility of nuclear weapons in national security policy, learning a lesson from the Ukraine conflict. The workshop will be conducted only on-line. We hope it will be useful for those looking of a better understanding of Russia’s nuclear policies and their implications for Northeast Asia.

Language:  English only
Registration:  Please register from here by March 11 (Mon) for all participants.
Contact:  RECNA Secretariat
TEL: +81-(0)95-819-2164
E-mail: recna_staff@ml.nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Abstract

The role that nuclear weapons played in shaping the conflict in Ukraine and Russia’s invasion in February 2022 raise important questions about nuclear deterrence and the utility of nuclear weapons as a military and political tool of war. The evidence suggests that this utility is extremely limited. More broadly, nuclear weapons do not provide the states that possess them with tangible national security benefits and the reliance on nuclear weapons ultimately undermines national security.


Profile of Speaker

Pavel-Podvig Pavel Podvig
Pavel Podvig is an independent analyst based in Geneva, where he runs his research project, “Russian Nuclear Forces.” He is also a Senior Researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research and a researcher with the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University. Pavel Podvig started his work on arms control at the Center for Arms Control Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which was the first independent research organization in Russia dedicated to analysis of technical issues of disarmament and nonproliferation. Pavel Podvig led the Center for Arms Control Studies project that produced the book, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (MIT Press, 2001). In recognition of his work in Russia, the American Physical Society awarded Podvig the Leo Szilard Lectureship Award of 2008 (with Anatoli Diakov). Pavel Podvig is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. He has a physics degree from MIPT and PhD in political science from the Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

 

2024年1月18日

Vol.6, Issue 2 of Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (J-PAND) is now available online. There are 13 open access articles.

For the issue, see here. It features “Irreversibility in Global Nuclear Politics”. This is the first part of a series of special issues on the subject.
 

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2023年11月30日

REC-PP-19

Nuclear Weapon in Changing World (November 2023)

Kokoro Nishiyama, Alina Smyslova

The main authors of the RECNA policy papers have been experts with accomplishments in universities, research institutions, and in the field of practice. This time, the two authors are young people who will continue to accumulate achievements in research and in the real world.

Starting with this issue, we will publish RECNA policy papers by the next generation of authors from time to time, though irregularly. This time, all the papers are written in English, but we would like to expand the opportunities to publish papers written in Japanese as well.

The training of the next generation in research related to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation toward nuclear abolition is an urgent task, and we hope that the new policy of the RECNA Policy Paper will contribute to the quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement of human resources.

★ Citation URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10069/0002000584
★ Full text of REC-PP-19 (PDF) is here.
★ List of RECNA Policy Papers is here.
 

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