Unipolarity and the 1995 NPT Extension

This week for the ISRU Work in Progress online session we welcomed Professor Campbell Craig (Cardiff University) and Professor Jan Ruzicka (Aberystwyth University) in discussion of their paper on the 1995 extension to the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Wishing to move the debate on from whether unipolarity exists or whether it represents a transient moment between multipolar systems, the paper addresses if, and how, unipolarity affects the foreign policy of the unipole. Suggesting it does, the paper shows how unipolarity provided an incentive for the United States to pursue the extension, after years of this being a marginal policy goal. It also shows how unipolarity enabled the United States to obtain its preferred outcome of treaty extension. Campbell Craig and Jan Ruzicka’s work then looks at how this analysis has implications for existing theory, historical interpretations, policy and the issue of nuclear disarmament. The presentations was followed by an interesting Q&A, all of which you can hear by clicking on the link below;

Unipolarity and the 1995 NPT Extension https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfz3jq74uo2gja7/Craig%20%26%20Ruzicka.m4a?raw=1