Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities
How do we build a more responsible global nuclear order?
The Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities invites officials, policy influencers and experts to explore how their state and other states understand their responsibilities around nuclear weapons.
All nuclear states have described themselves as “responsible nuclear weapon states” or similar, but there is no consensus around what this entails. Founded with this observation in late 2016, the Programme asked a high-level international track II roundtable hosted with the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security at Birmingham University to extrapolate this question.
The roundtable led to the report, “Responsible Nuclear Sovereignty and the Future of the Global Nuclear Order” (read here), in 2017. In June 2018, BASIC added South Asia to its gaze, publishing “Foregrounding India’s Nuclear Responsibilities” (read here) and hosting an accompanying roundtable that broke new ground by exploring India and Pakistan’s approaches to nuclear responsibility at King’s College London. Over 2018-2020, BASIC and ICCS have held roundtables for national policy communities in London (October 2018), Tokyo (January 2019), Kuala Lumpur (March 2019) and Geneva (March 2019), the Hague (August 2019), São Paulo (November 2019), New Delhi (November 2019), and a strategic dialogue in London (January 2020).
The Programme is a joint project with the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS) at the University of Birmingham. We are grateful for the generous support of the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the University of Birmingham, and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Programme Director: Sebastian Brixey-Williams
Programme Manager (Asia-Pacific Track): Dr Rishi Paul
Academic Lead: Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler (the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security and Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham)
With thanks to our funders at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the University of Birmingham and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).
Analysis and Publications for this Programme
Read our work on the responsibilities of states around nuclear weapons below
Event Recording: BASIC Co-Director Presents at OxPeace 2021
On 15th May, BASIC Co-Director Sebastian Brixey-Williams was invited to speak at the OxPeace 2021 Conference ’Peace in the Nuclear Era: threats, treaties and public understanding.’ View the recording here.
Nuclear Responsibilities: A Chinese Perspective
This piece, by Mr Zhou Chang forms of a number of reflective pieces written by experts to respond to the Nuclear Responsibilities Approach and is co-published between BASIC, the ICCS and the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA).
Engagement without Recognition: A Pathway to China-India Risk Reduction Dialogue?
Recent deadly military incidents and an ongoing border conflict between China and India has led…
Event recording: Nuclear Responsibilities report co-authors in conversation with Dr Rabia Akhtar, CSSPR Conversations
Following the BASIC-ICCS launch of ‘Nuclear Responsibilities: A New Approach for Thinking and Talking about…
Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities Launches Major Report at the UN First Committee 2020
The BASIC-ICCS launch of ‘Nuclear Responsibilities’ hosted a line-up of expert speakers and a Q&A session to discuss the aims and achievements of the Programme.
Report: Nuclear Responsibilities – A New Approach for Thinking and Talking about Nuclear Weapons
We seek in this report to suggest ways, and crucially propose a new method, to gradually shift the nature of the contemporary global conversation on nuclear weapons away from one characterised by rights, blame, and suspicion towards one framed by responsibility, empathic cooperation, and even trust.
Event Recording: Nuclear Responsibilities: A New Approach for Thinking and Talking about Nuclear Weapons (2 November 2020)
This is the recording of the launch of BASIC and ICCS’ report Nuclear Responsibilities:…
Report: Exploring the Nuclear Responsibilities Framing in India
On 22nd November 2019, BASIC organised a half-day scoping workshop in New Delhi at the…
Report: Nuclear Responsibilities and the Global Nuclear Order – Perspectives from São Paulo
What are Brazil’s responsibilities in the Global Nuclear Order?
Report: Differentiated Nuclear Responsibilities among Non-Nuclear Possessor States – Perspectives from the Hague
What are the Netherlands’ responsibilities around nuclear weapons?
Everything you need to know about the Programme on ‘Nuclear Responsibilities’
What are ‘nuclear responsibilities’ and what are they for? Find out everything you need to know about the BASIC-ICCS Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities.
Report: Common Security through Nuclear Responsibilities – Perspectives from Geneva
In March 2019, BASIC and ICCS staff held a closed-door roundtable at the Geneva Centre…
Active Programmes
BASIC believes in making progress on nuclear disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation through multiple complementary approaches. We continuously develop our programmes – streams of research – through sustained engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, collectively searching for the art of the possible.
Our current programmes are listed below. View the current programmes page by clicking here.
