A Brief Legal Commentary on Nuclear Weapons States’ Contemporary Policies Through Comparative International Approaches

Despite the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons remain an important issue in international relations, where efforts and cooperation worldwide have been reported toward the conceptualization of the “global nuclear order” for the purposes of mitigating nuclear dangers, inhibiting arms races, preventing the continuous spread of nuclear weapons to nonnuclear-weapons states (NNWS), as well as creating conditions for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Hence, the objective of this research paper concerns to scrutinize the effectiveness of the global nuclear order through the legal perspective of international law. For that matter, the research methods adopted by this research paper include comparative international approaches by providing a legal commentary in regards to the nuclear policies and doctrines of the nine nuclear-weapons states (NWS) currently in possession of nuclear weapons. They are classified in three main categories: (1) recognized NWS (Russia, the U.S., the U.K., France and China), (2) states declaring possession of nuclear weapons (India, Pakistan and North Korea) and (3) states indicated to possess nuclear weapons (Israel). The results obtained from this research paper implicate the clash between contrasting nuclear-related objectives of different political backgrounds demonstrating the potential to increase the risk of nuclear escalation threatening international peace and security.