This virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2PM
Leaders from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, and Russia (the P5) have said the now-in-force Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) “will have no practical impact,” was “not an effective measure,” and distracts from more important approaches to disarmament. They also have sought actively to contest the treaty, including pressuring and coercing allies and partners. This talk, based on a paper submitted for publication, introduces a framework of great power norm contestation strategies and applies this framework to what could be the most contested norm to date, the norm against the possession of nuclear weapons.
About the speaker: Rebecca Davis Gibbons is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine and an associate with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Her research focuses on the nuclear nonproliferation regime, arms control, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and global order. After college, she taught elementary school within the Bikini community on Kili Island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.