Dysfunctional, but stable – a Bourdieuian reading of the global nuclear order

The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is commonly regarded as the cornerstone of the global regime to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. It grants the five acknowledged nuclear weapon states the temporary right to possess nuclear weapons and prohibits such possession to all other member states. However, both the material provisions of the treaty and the actual practices surrounding the NPT have generated a highly unequal and arguably unjust global order. Yet why is this order still in place if it fails to pay tribute to eminent interests of many of its member states? This article argues that the sociological writings of Pierre Bourdieu help us to better understand why the nuclear order is actually quite stable despite its inherent flaws and injustices. I claim that the NPT regime with its division into nuclear haves and nuclear have-nots can be likened to the religious field in which priests rule over laymen through the command of ‘religious goods’ and through the establishment of certain – numbing and paralyzing – religious myths and practices. States over time internalize and habitualize these structures and schemes of interpretation, thus ultimately naturalizing, accepting, and reifying the hierarchical formation with all its dogmas and prescriptions. If we want to overcome the perceived injustices inherent in the current nuclear regime and achieve the envisioned goals of a world free of nuclear weapons, we need to uncover these structural, deeply engrained dispositions and practices and radically rethink the existing order beyond the confines of today’s nuclear conventionalism.