Nuclear weapons pose a threat to humanity and a disaster waiting to happen; should tragedy occur the humanitarian sector will undoubtedly be among the first to respond to the needs of the victims. The scale and scope of a nuclear disaster is bound to be far beyond the capability and capacity of states to adequately address, let alone humanitarian organizations. The thesis therefore explores actions available to the humanitarian sector in the form of advocacy in favour of nuclear disarmament and seeking the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. To achieve this the present work suggests a collective statement supported by humanitarian organizations globally. It describes a novel concept in the form of a posture of peace as possible indicator or descriptor of any actor’s intention based on content of explicit or implicit behaviour. It finds that knowledge around nuclear weapons is well enough established that action, or lack thereof, comes from a lack of political will which here is seen as obstacle that may be addressed by a collective statement by the humanitarian sector. A collective statement is here seen as a course of action that may spur governing actors to abolish nuclear weapons without creating tensions that may lead to further conflicts as well as being one of the few ways the humanitarian sector can, in a sense, protest.

This thesis takes the initial steps to find what it calls a ‘posture of peace’, a counterpart to what Hobbes refers to as a posture of war (Hobbes 1651/2004: 79)1. A posture of war representsdefensive initiatives that can be interpreted by others as a certain preparation for conflict, and its base definition is used as a template to formulate an initial version of a posture of peace2.While keeping this concept as an overarching theme throughout the thesis explores the concepts of nuclear posture and a credible minimum deterrence (CMD) through the examples of India and Pakistan. While the thesis discusses four different nuclear postures, there really are only two categories, namely the pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear posture. The main examples of pronuclear posture used here is the case of India and Pakistan, two geographical neighbouring Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) who have been experiencing ongoing frictions and conflicts since (and prior to) becoming nuclear powers. On the other side Kazakhstan serves as an example of an anti-nuclear posture and in regards to the nuclear debate a possible empirical example of a posture of peace. In addition to these postures there is also the concept of NonOffensive Defence (NOD), which is more exemplified in the Kazakhstan’s approach to their nuclear situation as well as their more contemporary initiative in collaboration with several other neighbouring states to form the Central Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (CANWFZ). The thesis concludes that while NOD finds little support in pro-nuclear posturing, there is ample space for it over on the ani-nuclear posture side of the spectrum which in addition aligns more with the present interpretation of a posture of peace. Moreover, the CANWFZ initiative appears to be as close a perfect example of a NOD in the present case and as close as this stage of the research will come to observing a posture of peace.