The Non-Aligned Movement and Nuclear Disarmament: Stance and Actions

The emergence of nuclear weapons as a new actor in international relations has introduced a new area in the international security arena. Since the appearance of these weapons, there have been increasing efforts to limit and destroy them in order to achieve global peace in the framework of disarmament and centered around the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Along with the emergence of the non-proliferation system and the current trend, achieving nuclear disarmament has turned into an international demand, especially for the Non-Aligned Movement member states. The present study seeks to analyze the influence of the Non-Aligned Movement on disarmament in the framework of the mentioned Treaty. To this end, and based on the Neoliberal Institutionalism theory, this article studies the Non-Aligned Movement’s stance toward nuclear disarmament in the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The study is written according to the descriptive-analytical method. The findings suggest that despite its inefficient influence prior to the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Non-Aligned Movement, as a major actor in international peace and security, has gained an influential position in the negotiations about the formation of the trends related to nuclear disarmament in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.