Watch Now: A World Without Nukes? How a Treaty Seeks to Ban All Nuclear Weapons

Can countries around the globe band together to ban nuclear weapons? That is the goal of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, an international treaty that outlaws nuclear armaments. Since its entry into force in 2021, 65 states have ratified the agreement, and it has become a touchpoint around which countries without nuclear arsenals are working to drive new norms. No nuclear powers have agreed to sign onto the treaty and destroy their nuclear arsenals to date. In fact, the nuclear great powers—China, Russia, and the United States—are modernizing their arsenals. Some European countries and US allies have curtailed the US’s ability to transport nuclear weapons on their territory as a result of the treaty’s adoption.

What did it take to negotiate a treaty that bans the weapons underwriting global (in)security and great power competition? Can states without nuclear might ever really set the global security agenda, and if so, what role might this treaty play? What will it take to completely eradicate nuclear weapons from the planet? What is an achievable goal for the future of the TPNW? 

This event from the Perry World House 2023 Global Order Colloquium features Elayne Whyte Gómez, the first President of the TPNW negotiations and Costa Rica’s former ambassador to the United Nations Geneva Headquarters, where she discuss the past, present, and future of the TPNW.

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