The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), with special acknowledgement to their advocacy for the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Mark Bell—assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota and expert on nuclear weapons and proliferation, international relations theory and U.S. and British foreign policy—weighs in on the treaty and its ability to impact nonproliferation and nuclear security worldwide.
"It remains to be seen whether the nuclear ban treaty will actually advance the cause of nuclear disarmament. None of the states possessing nuclear weapons or relying on the American nuclear umbrella have signed on to the treaty, and most nuclear weapons states are in the process of modernizing their nuclear arsenals. There is a danger that by focusing on the ban treaty, its advocates may distract from achieving more immediate nonproliferation and nuclear security goals that would be more likely to enhance international security."
Mark Bell
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota
Professor Bell holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow, and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from St. Anne's College, Oxford University.
Contact information:
[email protected]
612-624-4144 (office)
202-294-3364 (cell)
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