Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Nuclear Suppliers Group : A Functionalist Perspective on the Regime

Abstract

The Nuclear Suppliers Group was established to implement and enforce the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Compared to research on the NPT, there are few studies illustrating the origins or effectiveness of the NSG. This paper is designed to meet the need for more substantive analysis focusing on the NSG. To analyze the effectiveness of the NSG, three areas were examined: legal liability, reduced transaction costs, and clear and transparent information systems. As a result of analyzing these three issues, substantial evidence ex- ists that the NSG will be maintained and continue to work effectively to reduce the transaction and information costs; furthermore, high issue density of the NSG and its role in providing forums and meetings for negotiations also effectively reduces transaction costs. In addition, the NSG’s various information sharing systems, its regular meetings of technical experts, and the active participation of information-strong states has become a stepping stone to reducing the uncertainty and strengthening the NPT’s effectiveness. However, there are important limitations to the NSG’s effectiveness. There are several excep- tional cases, such as China and Russia’s export cases, that have harmed the integrity of the NSG regime. In addition, the membership extension issue has become a dilemma for the NSG. It is deemed necessary to initiate talks with non-membership states to achieve the long-term goal of non-proliferation, but this hinders optimization in terms of membership. Those limitations mitigate the effectiveness of the regime. Thus, it is necessary for the NSG to provide clear standards for full membership of the group and to clearly interpret the particular clauses of NSG guidelines.