The 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) outlaws nuclear weapons—from production and possession to use and threat of use. Germany holds an unusual position as a non-member of the Treaty, a NATO ally hosting U.S. nuclear weapons, and, simultaneously, a regular advocate of global nuclear disarmament. In this chapter, the TPNW is used as a probe to explore whether it has changed the German disarmament discourse. In a first step, Germany’s role in the TPNW negotiation process and the official government position are assessed. A thought experiment is then proposed: assuming the country were to decide to join, what challenges would remain? In the third part, Germany’s discursive actions in international fora and general domestic disarmament discourses are analyzed with a view to determining how the TPNW has shaped them. The analysis shows that Germany’s disarmament policies and responses to the TPNW have often boiled down to a “sowohl als auch” (as-well-as) approach that attempts to combine two conflicting positions: nuclear deterrence and complete nuclear disarmament.
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