Craig, Campbell  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4872-2403, Ruzicka, Jan and Egeland, Kjølv
2025.
A subtle call to greatness: Unipolarity, US foreign policy, and the indefinite extension of the NPT.
European Journal of International Security
10
(2)
, pp. 312-329.
10.1017/eis.2024.46
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Abstract
In this article, we analyse the implications of the end of the Cold War for US non-proliferation policy and the non-proliferation regime. Contrary to widely held expectations, we show that the end of bipolarity did not undercut the pursuit of non-proliferation but supercharge it. While bipolarity had afforded non-proliferation hold-outs opportunities to evade superpower pressure, the structural condition of unipolarity both incentivised and enabled the United States to pursue a more robust non-proliferation policy than before. Against the view that contemporary unipolar power is severely circumscribed by the need to make compromises and adhere to social norms, unipolarity allowed the United States to entrench a regime that was widely considered unjust. We support this argument with an analysis of non-proliferation dynamics in the early 1990s, focusing in particular on the process that culminated with the indefinite extension of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1995.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| ISSN: | 2057-5637 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 20 November 2025 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 1 September 2024 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Nov 2025 15:05 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182546 |
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