Two Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs) in populated areas were established during the Cold War: The Latin American and Caribbean NWFZ in 1967 and the South Pacific NWFZ in 1985. Before the signature of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968, many other countries in regions such as Central Europe (1957), the Balkans (1957) and Scandinavia (1963) also embraced the idea of constituting NWFZs, but they didn’t prosper. How did the bipolar dynamics of the Cold War determine these results? The following article explains the reasons behind the success and failure of the “first wave” of NWFZs proposals (1956 – 1968) by employing qualitative and quantitative methods. The study concludes that a relative disengagement from the superpower confrontation and a reduced number of security threats increased the likelihood of constituting a NWFZ. Additionally, this research outlines two patterns of negotiation, one for the cases that didn’t attain an agreement, and other, for the established NWFZ highlighting the differences and similarities between them.
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