The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2 pm (E.T).
This presentation will reflect on the stories that make up nuclear weapons politics to argue that nuclear narratives do not simply reflect nuclear policy contests but shape them, limiting how we can imagine our nuclear future. It will take as an example stories found in policy analysis, commentary, and academic texts about the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). These stories include the NPT as the ‘cornerstone’ of the non-proliferation regime and international security, the NPT as a ‘grand bargain’ about disarmament, non-proliferation, and civilian nuclear technology, and the NPT as a fragile regime facing a permanent emergency and on the verge of collapse. These recurring themes serve to permit the legitimacy management task for key NPT stakeholders and at the same time justify continually lowered expectations, a status quo orientation, and the framing of new proposals as unrealistic and/or potentially harmful. The presentation draws on the January 2021 paper “The Importance of Narrative in Nuclear Policymaking: A Study of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
About the speaker: Laura Considine is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Security Challenges at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds. Her work focuses on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, and the role of language, narrative, and myth in international politics. She is currently working on a project on the role of gender in nuclear weapons policymaking.