Teacher : Maïlys Mangin
Contact: mailys[dot]mangin[at]ens.psl.eu
Dates and times: Wednesday (16h-18h)
Room: salle F, 45 rue d’Ulm
Validation: 3 ECTS
Public: open to all ENS-PSL students
Registration here: Form (to be completed once per course. If you wish to register for two different CIENS courses, please fill in the form twice)
Far from the equilibrium of the Cold War, disarmament and nuclear arms control systems are today challenged by the geopolitical and technological transformations of the contemporary world: the erosion of American power, the rise of Chinese power, the return of war to the European continent, but also the evolution of weapons and new areas of conflict (space and cyber). In the “third nuclear age”, how can we rethink the fundamentals of nuclear arms control, essential to strategic stability and reducing the risk of conflict between nuclear powers?
The aim of this seminar is to give students the opportunity to discover or examine in greater depth the major contemporary issues from the angle of a question that is as technical as it is political, and central to the strategic debate. It aims both to revisit the major debates that presided over the founding of disarmament mechanisms during the Cold War, and to analyze the challenges that their renewal represents today, in the face of the rapid transformation of international strategic balances and the emergence of highly disruptive technologies.
Seminar presentation
Since the 2000s, nuclear arms control mechanisms have come under considerable scrutiny. Several major treaties (Anti-Ballistic Missile – ABM treaty; Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces – INF treaty; Open Skies – Treaty on Open Skies; or the JCPoA – the nuclear agreement with Iran) have been denounced by the main signatory states; others, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or the New Start treaty between the USA and Russia, see their future threatened in the short term. What are the causes of the devitalization of these mechanisms, which have been key to preserving global strategic stability in recent decades?
What are the security risks posed by the crumbling of these mechanisms? How can we explain the political and technical difficulties encountered by efforts to reinvigorate these cardinal institutions of international security?
The course begins with an examination of the historical development and current status of nuclear arms control and nuclear disarmament policies, from 1945 to the present day. It traces the political history, strategic considerations and institutional developments that have shaped global nuclear arms control and disarmament efforts. The aim of this historical detour is to gain a better understanding of the debates and political power struggles in which contemporary nuclear arms control issues are rooted. It also initiates a reflection on the transformation of strategic balances and their consequences for European security. How is the questioning of Cold War arms control instruments forcing States to rethink their security architecture: what place for deterrence? what new arms control objectives and formats? what are the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine?
The aim of this seminar is to give students the opportunity to discover or examine in greater depth the major contemporary issues from the angle of a question that is as technical as it is political, and central to the strategic debate. It aims both to revisit the major debates that presided over the founding of disarmament mechanisms during the Cold War, and to analyze the challenges that their renewal represents today, in the face of the rapid transformation of international strategic balances and highly disruptive technologies.
Seminar structure and assessment
Each course will be structured around several compulsory readings per session, drawing on both history and current international events. These documents will most often be in English. The course itself will be delivered in French. Some sessions will be co-hosted by a diplomat.
Assessment will take into account attendance at sessions, as well as a final test involving the writing of a mini-research dissertation on a topic of your choice related to the course theme.
Format: between 15,000 and 22,000 characters including spaces — excluding bibliography (between 7 and 10 pages).
Deadline: April 30, 23:00 at the latest.
Session description
Session 1 – January 24. The origins of nuclear arms control policies: security issues and key concepts.
Session 2 – January 31. Controlling the arms race. From the first strategic arms control treaty to the threat of an unrestricted world.
Session 3 – February 7. The future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): from a consensual agreement to an object of growing polarization.
Interruption
Session 4 – March 6. Reducing strategic risks between nuclear weapons holders.
Speaker : Ms Pauline Levy, Chargée de mission, Direction générale des relations internationales et de la stratégie (DGRIS), Ministère des Armées.
Session 5 – March 13. Consolidating Europe’s security architecture.
Speaker : Mr Guillaume OLLAGNIER, Director of Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament
Disarmament (DGP/ASD), Ministry of Europe and Strategic Affairs.
Session 6 – April 2. Scientific and political fields in the production of strategic thought.
March 26, 2024: Conference with Rose Gottemoeller, former Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department. Now a research fellow at the Hoover Institute, she teaches at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Required reading per session
Course materials will be provided during the session