The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has been signed and ratified by over 60 state parties and is now in effect. The TPNW is not very detailed in its language or its envisioned organizational structure. Only the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is mentioned as a potentially cooperating party. The IAEA is only mandated to verify nuclear materials inventories and has no charter to carry out a major elimination of the world’s stockpiles of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was specially created by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to be the enabling organization with a professional secretariat dedicated to discovering, verifying and eliminating chemical weapons. The model of the OPCW is an excellent template for a future TPNW secretariat to carry out a very large and complex mission which is very similar to what TPNW is proposing. To a limited extent, also the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty organization can act as a template. This essay compares the OPCW, and to a lesser extent the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty organization, as strong successful models for disarmament.
Sophie Grate, Erik Branger, Cecilia Gustavsson and Vaibhav Mishra is part of the Working Group 4 of Alva Myrdal Centre for nuclear disarmament at Uppsala University