As a state with one of the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons Russia is a key participant of nuclear non-proliferation regime and defines nuclear arms control as a priority of its foreign policy. This course will discover the logic and the frames of Russian nuclear arms control policies. You will learn the historical background and the modern context of bilateral US-Russian relations in nuclear arms control and understand how these relations influence the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. You will get the basic tools for analyzing Russian defence and security policy in regards to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Upon the completion this course the students will… ...be able to - analyze the actions of a state from the point of view of the present treaties on nuclear arms control; - come up with their own opinion on the problem commented by the arms control experts; - make arguments supporting their position in discussions of nuclear arms control. ...get to know - the technical, political and strategic aspects of agreements on nuclear arms control; - the content of arms control treaties in which Russia participates; - the trustworthy informational resources dedicated to the problem of nuclear arms control. ...be familiar with - the special terminology in the area of arms control; - the modern state and the perspectives of international policy regarding nuclear arms control; - the basics of Russia’s nuclear arms control policy.
3.2 'Understanding Arms Control: Part 1'
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來自 Saint Petersburg State University 的課程
Russia and Nuclear Arms Control
21 個評分
從本節課中
Nuclear Arms Control
與講師見面
Anastasia A. MalyginaAssistant Professor
Department of Theory and History of International Relations
Andrey Y. PavlovProfessor
Department of Theory and History of International Relations
As you remember, an arms race is a process where at least two parties participate.
Uncontrolled arms race can be a serious threat to national security.
So, the USA and the USSR tried to
use arms control politics to tackle the problems of their national security.
And in this video,
we will talk about arms control as an instrument of
security policy and from the perspective of the international law.
Arms control is a sphere of international politics
that can be used to solve the problems of national security.
There could be different arrangements and instruments.
All instruments of international arms control can be divided into two parts,
formal and informal arrangements.
Non-formal arms control can
take different forms like arrangements,
guiding principles, plans of actions and so on.
The main feature of these type of instruments
is that there are no any legally binding obligations.
So, the participants of the arms control arrangements can
take the obligations unilaterally
and can join any arrangements anytime they want.
But if they withdraw from an initiative or an arrangement,
there will not be any sanctions or enforcement or punishment for that.
Formal arms control can
be described through different notions,
treaties, conventions, agreements, participating
an international organization can be also variant of formal arms control.
By joining an international organization or by signing a treaty,
a state takes some obligations.
So, withdrawal from a treaty would lead to sanctions.
Legally binding arms control agreements can be bilateral or multilateral.
At the same time,
a state can declare adherence to some arms control norm unilaterally.
For example, a state can declare no first use pledge.
It means that the state declares that it will
not use nuclear weapons as a means of aggression.
Bilateral and multilateral formal arms control arrangements can be
set either on the regional or on the global level.
Let's now have a look at their living cycle of an arms control arrangement.
We can divide it into three significant steps.
First of all negotiations,
negotiations are very comprehensive and complicated process.
A lot of different stakeholders from
national level are involved into negotiations.
By signing the treaty or the convention,
the state declares readiness to follow the obligations,
but signing the treaty is a declarative step.
The third step is very important, the ratification.
There are different types of ratification instruments usually the
congress or the parliament votes to adopt the treaty and to ratify that treaty.
Usually, the state needs to prepare for it ratification because after the ratification,
all obligations starts to be legally binding for the state,
and if the state does not show adherence to the norms and limitations of that treaty,
there could be sanctions.
Let's now have a look on different arms control instruments that are used on
those three steps towards
entering into force of the legally binding arrangement or the treaty.
First of all, when the state ratifies the agreement,
it may make some reservations.
For example, nuclear weapons states during ratifying
the protocols for the treaties that establish
zones free of nuclear weapons made some reservations.
Usually, international agreements establish depositories.
The state party or
some international institution can be called
depositary according to the international agreement or convention.
Depositary accepts the instruments of ratification from the state parties and
also provides services to support
efficient and sustainable communication between the state parties to the agreement.
In the text of the agreement,
the duration of the legally binding obligations may be described.
Usually, Soviet-American nuclear arms control agreements included
these norm and they described
a limited period of time during which the agreement was legally binding.
However, international treaties may have another norm.
They may include the possibility of extension,
so the legally binding obligations after special decision of the state parties to
the treaty may be extended for a definite period of time or an indefinite period of time.
For example, in 1995 state parties to
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty decided to
extend the NPT for the indefinite period of time.
In some circumstances, when the ideas and the provisions of
the treaty start to contradict with the national interests of the state,
the state party can withdraw from the treaty,
that is called denunciation.
However, there is another possibility,
a state can unilaterally declare
their moratorium on the adherence to the limitations set by the treaty.
Sometimes, the international world order changes
rapidly and some states collapse and new states arise.
In this situation, the procedure of succession is very useful.
State parties to the treaty need to decide
which country will be declared the successor to the previous state party of the treaty.
Some treaties include the possibility
of making changes to the main provisions of the treaty.
The possibility then will be called amendments.
However, modern multilateral arms control agreements
does not have these norm in their texts.
So, after signing and ratifying the treaty,
the state parties do not have possibility to
change any norms or ideas included into the agreement.
International arms control agreements usually
establish the procedure for reviewing the treaty.
It means that regularly,
the state parties to the treaty meet to discuss the problems,
the expectations and to develop the road map for the next period of time.
For example, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
establishes the institution of reviewing conferences.
The first conference occurred in 1975,
the five years after the treaty entered into force and
state parties to the treaty come to the reviewing conferences each five years.
So, here are the main instruments of
international arms control as
an instrument of international security and international politics.
