The NPT, IAEA, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Negotiations
Bargaining in the Shadow of Violence: The NPT, IAEA, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Negotiations By Arsalan M. Suleman* ABSTRACT The NPT non-proliferation regime is both a multilateral treaty of interna- tional law and a dispute system designed to manage conflict over the use of nu- clear technology. The system seeks to balance the competing desires of member- states to have access to peaceful nuclear technology and to provide national se- curity. In the course of implementation, the system must handle disputes over alleged violations of the NPT and IAEA safeguards agreements. Negotiations, crucial to the functioning of the NPT dispute system, are undertaken in the shadow of the law and the shadow of violence. The NPT and any relevant agreement signed with the IAEA serve as a legal endowment, a set of rules that allocate rights and obligations for all parties involved. This legal framework ac- knowledges and incorporates various means of coercion, including the use of armed force, in order to enforce those rights and obligations. Still, the system has no monopoly on coercion and violence, as states can act outside of the sys- tem' s structure to influence actors within it. This article applies dispute systems design principles to analyze the NPT as a dispute system for nuclear prolifera- tion concerns, and examines three case studies of non-proliferation negotia- tions-North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan-to see how negotiations were influ- enced by legal endowments and the shadow of violence. * Law Clerk to Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2007-2008; J.D., Harvard Law School, 2007; M.Phil., International Peace Studies, Trin- ity College, Dublin, 2005; B.S.F.S., International Security Studies, Georgetown University, 2003.
[Show full text]