TPNW Member States Follow Recommendations from IFSH and Princeton Researchers

From 21 to June 23, the first meeting of State parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was held Vienna. In a statement at the meeting, IFSH researcher Moritz Kütt presented scientific research conducted together with Zia Mian from Princeton University on deadlines to be set at the vienna meeting. Prior to the meeting, the researchers published their findings in the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (Article 1, Article 2).

According to the treaty regulations, two separate deadlines had to be decided upon at the June meeting. One was a deadline for the destruction of nuclear weapons for weapons-owning states that join the treaty in future. To examine this aspect. Kütt and Mian studied past weapon dismantlement rates. Based on their research, Kütt and Mian recommended a deadline of ten years, and a potential extension period in the event of unforeseen difficulties. The second deadline was one for the removal of nuclear weapons from states that host nuclear weapons owned by other countries (e.g. Germany). Here, Kütt and Mian looked at five case studies of weapons removal in the past. Based on their findings, they recommended a deadline of 90 days.

For the meeting, the South African delegation prepared a Working Paper, which took into account the information presented by the researchers. It recommended deadlines of ten years and 90 days, respectively. Both recommendations were adopted by the states present at the meeting - following directly the recommendations published in the two articles.

Read Statement as given