Staying the course: lessons from South Africa for irreversibility of nuclear disarmament

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorPretorius, Joelien
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-12T07:36:08Z
dc.date.available2024-11-12T07:36:08Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractTo conceptualise irreversibility of nuclear disarmament, it is better to think about nuclear disarmament as a historical process than a historical moment. I apply a path-dependency lens to do so in the case of South Africa. During the formative phase of its nuclear disarmament, narratives of intent were employed to take advantage of windows of opportunity brought about by historical contingencies and conjectures. It allowed South African decision-makers to set the disarmament course and take the first steps down this path. Timing and sequencing of decisions, actions and announcements played an important role in locking in the behaviour of actors that could have reversed the process in this crucial stage. The choice to stay the disarmament course has since been informed by cost-benefit and normative drivers to reach an equilibrium point. This point reflects a circumscribed understanding of irreversibility of nuclear disarmament for South African policymakers, namely demilitarising fissile material and putting it under international safeguards. This is the status of South Africa’s highly enriched uranium (HEU) today. For South Africa to move towards a broader understanding of irreversibility that includes relinquishing HEU and giving up the right to uranium enrichment will require “coordination” of similar efforts in a broader move to nuclear disarmament by nuclear-armed states.
dc.identifier.citationPretorius, J., 2024. Staying the Course: Lessons from South Africa for Irreversibility of Nuclear Disarmament. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, pp.1-19.
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2024.2368297
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/19638
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.subjectIrreversibility
dc.subjectNuclear disarmament
dc.subjectPath-dependency
dc.subjectSouth Africa
dc.subjectPolicymakers
dc.titleStaying the course: lessons from South Africa for irreversibility of nuclear disarmament
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
pretorius_staying_ the _course_lessons_2024.pdf
Size:
651.13 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Research Articles (Political Studies)