Expanding Nuclear Weapons State Transparency to Strengthen Nonproliferation

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Date
2015-03-12Author
Siegel, Jonas
Citation
Jonas Siegel, "Expanding Nuclear Weapons State Transparency to Strengthen Nonproliferation," CISSM Publication, March 2015.
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Show full item recordAbstract
In the years since the 2000 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, NPT
nuclear weapons states have engaged in consequential transparency measures about their
stockpiles of nuclear weapons and materials. The level of transparency thus far achieved,
however, has proven uneven in terms of the types and amounts of information released and in
terms of the frequency of those releases—and most importantly, has not contributed significantly
to fulfillment of these states NPT commitments. Nuclear weapons states should reassess the
scope of their transparency efforts to date and consider expanding the types of information that
they reveal to provide international assurances and achieve gains in support of the nuclear
nonproliferation regime. This paper identifies particular steps that these states could take to
fulfill the desire for greater transparency that move beyond declarations of the number and status
of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials. In particular, it focuses on how transparency can be
expanded about the operational practices and protocols that govern the day-to-day management
of their military nuclear materials—their warheads, weapons components, and material
stockpiles—and how transparency in this area would contribute to fulfilling their disarmament
and nonproliferation commitments.