The EU and the NPT: Testing the new European Nonproliferation strategy

• Main Author: PORTELA, Clara
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2004
• Subjects: Eastern European Studies; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research_all/14; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=soss_research_all
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Only a few years ago, the idea that the European Union (EU) could become a significant actor in the nuclear nonproliferation regime would have met with great scepticism. An organisation comprising nuclear weapon states (NWS) along with non-nuclear weapons states (NNWS) - some of who are disarmament-minded - would have been considered incapable of framing any common response to nuclear proliferation. And yet, today we find that the EU is establishing itself as an actor in the field of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and that it has even developed a Strategy to guide its endeavours.This article will first analyse the EU Strategy against the proliferation of WMD and its rationale. It will then look at the consequences for the EU as an actor in nonproliferation, particularly vis-à-vis the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and consider the prospective role of the EU at the next Review Conference, to be held in May 2005.