ABSTRACT
Conventional wisdom about nuclear weapons decision-making argues that nuclear policy is based on material cost-benefit calculations, with systemic forces propelling states into a narrow range of choices. Nuclear proliferation is unsurprising, given the anarchical state system; non-proliferation will succeed only if the great powers can enforce it through a system of benefits and sanctions; disarmament is both unlikely and undesirable. For decades, the literature on nuclear policy was dominated by discussions of nuclear proliferation: strategy and deterrence, nuclear rivalries and the causes of nuclear acquisition. Realist explanations about nuclear restraint revolve around explaining why the proliferation predicted by the theory has failed to materialize. Civil society is likely important to nuclear exits in another way. With regard to norm processing, international actors are bombarded with large numbers of normative messages, many of them conflicting, from both external and domestic sources.
