On April 24, 2024, Jana Baldus successfully defended her dissertation titled “Who is (the) radical? Radicalisation, polarisation, and the emergence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons“.
In her doctoral project, Jana Baldus analyses the normative conflicts in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the associated emergence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Starting from the puzzle of why the TPNW was (and could only be) negotiated now, she examines how contestation and resistance from various actors in the nuclear order became increasingly radicalised and thus created a space for the emergence of the TPNW.
The dissertation was written as part of the research project "Perspectives of Arms Control". Initiated by the Foreign Office and PRIF, four doctoral researchers analyze current and future problems of arms control and outline possibilities for cooperation in this field with the aim of supporting political decision-makers with expertise on arms control and other security-related topics. Further doctoral theses in the project will examine how the Nuclear Non-Proliferation regime reproduces a post-colonial order, how knowledge and practice of arms control can have a preventive effect on the development of new weapons systems and which structural conditions facilitate intransparency and corruption in arms trade.
Congratulations on the successful dissertation.