Framing the nonproliferation debate

Abstract

During the 1980s and 1990s, Parliamentarians for Global Action, a nongovernmental disarmament organization, advanced a “challenger frame” that demanded more concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament than the superpowers were willing to take. They used their status as a nongovernmental actor to intervene in global diplomatic processes in ways that states could not. Parliamentarians for Global Action took advantage of the fact that the majority of the world's governments favored steps toward nuclear disarmament and worked to leverage the numbers and moral legitimacy behind this goal against the stubborn resistance of the global nuclear powers. Using language and procedures embedded in global treaties, they helped advance dialogue on nuclear disarmament during a time when the global superpowers preferred to keep such issues off the global agenda.

Citation

Smith, J. (2000), "Framing the nonproliferation debate", Coy, P.G. (Ed.) Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-786X(00)80035-X