ABSTRACT
With the meagre results of substantive nuclear disarmament the question of the use—or rather, non-use—of nuclear weapons has become a topical issue in different disarmament and arms control contexts. This chapter places emphasis on the question of negative assurances in the non-use sense, and with particular attention to the idea of a Nordic nuclear weapon-free zone. The question of non-use commitments in a Nordic context came to the forefront during the 1970s, as the notion of negative security assurances received wider attention and as the idea of a Nordic zone assumed a more concrete form. A commitment by a nuclear power not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against participants in a nuclear weapon-free zone only on the condition that the latter behave well conveys the impression that the use of nuclear weapons in other situations or against other non-nuclear weapon states would be permissible.
