Laurien Crump and Elmar Hellendoorn contribute to 'Negotiating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty'

Dr Elmar Hellendoorn and Dr Laurien Crump (History of International Relations) contributed to the volume Negotiating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Origins of the Nuclear Order that was edited by Roland Popp, Liviu Horovitz and Andreas Wenger.

The volume offers a critical historical assessment of the negotiation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and of the origins of the nonproliferation regime. The NPT has been signed by 190 states and was indefinitely extended in 1995, rendering it the most successful arms control treaty in history. Nevertheless, little is known about the motivations and strategic calculi of the various middle and small powers in regard to their ultimate decision to join the treaty despite its discriminatory nature. 

Eastern European perspective

In her contribution, Crump explores the NPT negotiations from an Eastern European point of view, something that has never been done before. By exploring several primary sources from different Eastern European perspectives, she shows that the NPT-negotiations and the nuclear issues were not only widely discussed within the Warsaw Pact, but also that the smaller Warsaw Pact countries like Romania, Poland and the GDR, had more say than has been thought so far.