ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the destabilization of the nuclear order and the NPT. Challenging the traditional understanding of the NPT as a “grand bargain on three pillars”, the existence of a bargain is questioned and the compatibility of the three pillars explored. Non-proliferation is a pillar defined not only as one over the other two, but one that reduces the will to disarm. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has forced the nuclear weapon states to expose the structural core of the nuclear order: deterrence. While deterrence and abstinence were the initial choices for states, deterrence has been an invisible, unchallenged dimension of the nuclear order for decades. The answer to the emerging question: can the NPT be reformed, is no. The nuclear order and its international rules have to be renegotiated.
