The United Nations Security Council and Arms Control: A Failure of Responsibility
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
From the Publisher
Chapter thirty-six (36) critically examines the UN Security Council's role in arms control law. The authors argue that the Permanent Members of the Security Council have failed time again to meet nuclear non-proliferation obligations. The chapter pinpoints that - far from preventing proliferation - members of the Security Council are responsible for every state that has acquired nuclear weapons in violation of the NPT since the treaty's inception. This failure is not without consequence. For decades, there was a sense of prestige and a degree of deference that the Security Council and its P5 members enjoyed. This was true to such an extent, that many countries actively lobbied to expand the P5 membership that they, too, might have what was then perceived to be a stronger hand in the governance of global affairs. While these calls have not altogether fallen silent, they are now being met with others that signal the Council's growing irrelevance.
Recommended Citation
O'Connell, Mary and White, Sawyer, "The United Nations Security Council and Arms Control: A Failure of Responsibility" (2022). Book Chapters. 55.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/55
Publication Information
in The Research Handbook on International Arms Control Law 593 (Eric Myjer & Thilo Marauhn eds., 2022).
University of Notre Dame online access only