Better know a treaty: Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

The Arms Control Primer · Oct 15, 2026 · 1h 6m

Five treaties now keep nuclear weapons out of most of the southern hemisphere and parts of the northern. In this episode of the Arms Control Primer, Dr Alexander Bollfrass is joined by Professor J. Luis Rodriguez, Dr Olamide Samuel and Almuntaser Albalawi. They trace each zone back to the crisis that inspired it and assess the pressures facing the treaties of Rarotonga and Pelindaba and Mongolia’s single-state status. They also explain why the decades-long push for a Middle East weapons of mass destruction free zone keeps stalling. Their verdict is that the members have kept their side of the…