ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a new approach is necessary because the advent of nuclear weapons had implications for possessor states that are not sufficiently explored in the existing mainstream and realist literature. Increasing civilian and democratic influence and control over nuclear weapon states (NWS) defence and foreign policy, as appropriate to the circumstances of each, would also likely help moderate and restrain these state’s international behaviour. The potential for international cooperation pursuant to nuclear disarmament thus exists in NWS, but is not being realised, often because of domestic bureaucratic continuity and political obstruction, driven by decision-makers’ wider strategic goals. Instead, permanent bureaucracies in NWS are optimising the effectiveness of their nuclear arsenals by producing ever more advanced, threatening and potentially usable weaponry. In addition, institutional democratisation outlines how NWS may eliminate the bomb, by providing a viable normative theory of domestic political change.
