To gain legitimacy, any global order needs to fulfil two conditions. First, a convergence among the major powers of the day, and, second, successfully presenting the outcome as a global public good to the rest of the world. The global nuclear order (GNO) was no exception but, today, it is under strain.
Lessons of the Cold War
The GNO was created in the shadow of the Cold War, with the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., leading the western and the Socialist blocs, respectively. Following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two came perilously close to launching a nuclear war, both U.S. President John F. Kennedy and General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev understood two political realities. First, as the two nuclear superpowers, they needed bilateral mechanisms to prevent tensions from escalating to the nuclear level. And, second, nuclear weapons are dangerous and, therefore, their spread should be curbed. This convergence created the GNO.
