ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the logic and rationale underpinning the civil society and diplomatic campaigns that brought the nuclear ban treaty into being, and discusses its provisions in the context of the framers’ objectives, choices and constraints. Looking at how humanitarian security approaches are transforming the assumptions and practices of multilateral diplomacy in many areas, the chapter analyses why the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW) requires the denuclearization of deterrence policies and goes further than the NPT in enshrining comprehensive prohibitions and positive obligations. While the nuclear ban is likely to enter into force soon, advocates will continue to face huge challenges to persuade the nuclear-armed and umbrella governments that joining the Treaty is in their fundamental security interests. It is argued that the ban will transform the legitimacy and operations of nuclear weapons and open up a new space to accomplish three intersecting global zeros: zero nuclear weapons use through diminishing their roles in security and defence policies to zero, which will in turn make it possible to make zero nuclear arsenals a reality.
