Trust in Nuclear Worlds

Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler's project on 'Trust-building in Nuclear Worlds’ began in March 2007. It developed out of Ken Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler's research on security dilemma dynamics which was subsequently published as The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation, and Trust in World Politics (2008).

Professor Wheeler received a 3-year ESRC / AHRC fellowship to pursue the 'Trust-building in Nuclear Worlds' project as part of the Global Uncertainties programme, which brings together the activities of the UK's Research Councils to better integrate current investments and to develop and support new multi-disciplinary research in response to global security challenges. From October 2009 to July 2011, Professor Wheeler worked on the project with Research Assistant Dr Jan Ruzicka. A new research assistant will be joining him soon. 

The aim of the project is to (1) apply insights from theories and practices of trust developed in the wider Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities to International Relations / security studies; (2) establish trust as a core concept in International Relations/security studies; and (3) focus on the empirical area of nuclear weapons. The project’s multidisciplinary core group will promote conceptual development. This will be followed by comparative case studies of nuclear rivalries that will seek to identify the ideas and beliefs that promoted trust in some cases but not in others, with a view to applying the 'best practice' identified to cases of nuclear mistrust. Finally, in a series of regional workshops, scholars and practitioners will come together with the aim of seeking to learn from history (e.g. missed opportunities for trust-building). The purpose of these theoretical and applied activities is to develop new policy agendas aimed at creating opportunities for promoting trust in relation to one of the most significant issues of global security, namely the future of nuclear weapons.