Non-Nuclear Peace

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   • Tom Sauer, Jorg Kustermans, Barbara Segaert

   Pages 1-8

3. Criticism of Nuclear Deterrence and Proliferation: Old and New

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. Conceptions of the Bomb in the Early Nuclear Age

      • Casper Sylvest

      Pages 11-37

   3. Nuclear Weapons: Peaceful, Dangerous, or Irrelevant?

      • Patricia M. Lewis

      Pages 39-57

   4. Vertical Proliferation in Light of the Disarmament Commitment

      • Katarzyna Kubiak

      Pages 59-84

4. On the Road to Non-Nuclear Peace: From Ridicule to Stigmatizing via Prohibition

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85

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   2. Stigmatization by Ridicule: From Dr. Strangelove to Donald Trump

      • Rodger A. Payne

      Pages 87-113

   3. The Humanitarian Initiative: A Critical Appreciation

      • Nina Tannenwald

      Pages 115-129

   4. Nuclear Ban Treaty: Sand or Grease for the NPT?

      • Michal Onderco

      Pages 131-148

5. Sustaining Non-Nuclear Peace: Government or Governance in the Longer Term

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 149-149

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   2. What Are the Institutional Preconditions for a Stable Non-Nuclear Peace?

      • Harald Müller

      Pages 151-166

   3. Can the Danger of Nuclear War Be Eliminated by Disarmament?

      • Campbell Craig

      Pages 167-180

   4. Conclusion: Towards Non-Nuclear Peace

      • Tom Sauer, Jorg Kustermans, Barbara Segaert

      Pages 181-190

6. Back Matter

   Pages 191-194

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This volume examines the possibility of a world without nuclear weapons. It starts from the observation that, although nuclear deterrence has long been dominant in debates about war and peace, recent events show that ridicule and stigmatization of nuclear weapons and their possessors is on the rise. The idea of non-nuclear peace has been around since the beginning of the nuclear revolution, but it may be staging a return. The first part reconstructs the criticism of nuclear peace, both past and present, with a particular emphasis on technology. The second part focuses on the most revolutionary change since the beginning of the nuclear revolution, namely the Humanitarian Initiative and the resulting Nuclear Ban Treaty (2017), which allows imagining non-nuclear peace anew. The third and last part explores the practical and institutional prospects of a peace order without nuclear weapons. If non-nuclear peace advocates want to convince skeptics, they have to come up with practical solutions in the realm of global governance or world government.

• non-nuclear peace
• Nuclear Ban Treaty
• NPT
• public intellectuals
• nuclear weapons
• intellectual history
• morality
• stability
• the human condition
• belief systems
• nuclear doctrines
• nuclear deterrence
• arms control
• disarmament
• non-proliferation
• vertical proliferation
• modernization
• international norms
• political legitimacy
• ridicule

• Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

  Tom Sauer, Jorg Kustermans

• University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

  Barbara Segaert

Tom Sauer is Associate Professor in International Politics at the Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. He is co-editor of Nuclear Terrorism: Countering the Threat and author of Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: The Role of Missile Defense, Nuclear Inertia: US Nuclear Weapons Policy after the Cold War, and Nuclear Arms Control.


Jorg Kustermans teaches international politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His scholarship is situated at the intersection of international theory and social theory (state personhood, republican security, the nature of social practices). He is co-editor of Pacifism’s Appeal: Ethos, History, Politics (with Sauer T., Lootens D. & Segaert B.)


Barbara Segaert is Scientific Coordinator at the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium (since 2002), where she develops academic programmes onvarious topics of contemporary relevance to society. She has previously studied Oriental Studies, Islamic Studies and Arab Philology at KU Leuven, Belgium, and Social Sciences at the Open University, UK. 

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