EISS 2023 - Annual Conference

How Russia's War on Ukraine has an Impact on the EU’s Nuclear Disarmament Policy

30 Jun 2023, 14:10

20m

Room 40.010 (Roger de Llúria 40) (Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Barcelona)

Paper Abstract (Closed Panels) Weapons of Mass Destruction: Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Closed Panels

Speaker

Dr Aderito Vicente (Odesa Center for Nonproliferation)

Description

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, led to a war between the two former republics of the Soviet Union. Moscow’s aggression marked a critical juncture and a deeply disturbing challenge to the current nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, but it also raised concerns about security in Europe, leading some European Union (EU) member states to reconsider their commitment to disarmament. At large, Russia's War on Ukraine has made it more difficult for the EU to advance its nuclear disarmament agenda by raising security concerns, reducing trust in Russia, increasing support for NATO, and reducing the EU's ability to project soft power and act as a global leader in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
This paper focuses on evaluating the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine on the EU's foreign policy in the field of nuclear disarmament. First, I analyze how this war weakened the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliteration of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) regime. Second, I analyse the factors that had an impact on the EU's foreign policy-making in the field of nuclear disarmament. My argument relies on the fact that the policy decision of each EU member state is affected by security concerns, which include a deteriorating security environment and external threat perception as conditioning factors. Third, I use these factors to identify the following effects that were produced by the war: reduced trust in Russia, increased support for NATO, and reduced EU's soft power on the international stage. Fourth, and ultimately, considering these conditioning factors and effects, I examine why Russia's War on Ukraine undermines the EU’s foreign policy in the field of nuclear disarmamen.