Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 01/2010

Taking the Path of Delegitimization to Nuclear Disarmament

Amandeep Singh Gill

April 2009

Center for International Security and Cooperation

Abstract

This paper describes a "base camp" on the path to the "summit" of nuclear elimination in which the current tradition of nuclear non-use has been strengthened significantly, so that nuclear use and nuclear threats are delegitimized as instruments of national power. Before describing this future world and the steps that could lead up to or beyond it, the paper presents some essential background information on nuclear delegitimization.